Saina Nehwal reaches Malaysia Open quarter-finals

Nehwal eased past Xue Yao of China

Kuala Lumpur, April 2 (IANS): World No.1 Saina Nehwal reached the quarter-finals while men's singles shuttlers H.S. Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap suffered crushing defeats in the second round of the $500,000 Malaysia Open Superseries Premier at the Putra Stadium here on Thursday.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina registered a facile 21-13, 21-9 win in 30 minutes against Chinese qualifier Xue Yao in the second round of the women's singles event.

In the last eight stage, the 25-year-old Hyderabadi, who currently trains under Vimal Kumar in Benagluru, will face World No.15 Sun Yu. The Chinese worked hard for her 21-17, 20-22, 21-17 victory over Malaysian Beiwen Zhang.

Prannoy, who jumped three places to be 14th in the World rankings on Thursday, lost 15-21, 14-21 in 52 minutes to five-time World champion Lin Dan of China.

World No.17 and Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap received a 10-21, 6-21 thrashing in 35 minutes at the hands of reigning World champion Chen Long of China.

In another heartbreak for India, leading Indian women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 23-21, 8-21, 17-21 in 58 minutes to the Indonesian pair of Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii.

In the quarter-finals, World No.1 Chen will face Kento Momota, who crushed Hu Yun 21-6, 21-9. Two-time Olympic champion Dan awaits the winner between India's Kidambi Srikanth and Chinese Tian Houwei.