Saina Nehwal through to the Quarterfinal of Australian Open Superseries

Saina Nehwal (file photo)

World No.1 and London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal reached the quarter-finals while men's singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa crashed out in the second round of the $750,000 Australian Open Super Series.

Saina Nehwal got the better of the young Chinese shuttler Su Yun 21-19 19-21 21-14 in a 78 minute clash.Second seeded Saina was made to work hard by the World ranked 9 Chinese shuttler before the Indian used all her experience to wrap up the issue in her favour and advance to the final eight.Saina started the match on a postive note as she took a strong five points lead before the mid game interval of the opening game.Trailing by 13-17, Su made a good comeback as she grabbed the next three points in a row to shorten the lead but Saina was in no mood to make the game any more interesting as she clicnhed the first game oppoirtunity to close the game by a scoreline of 21-19.

Second game was a lot similar to the first game as Saina again took a six point lead in the initial stages but Su Yn made a remarkable comeback as she grabbed few points in a row to back level the scores.From 19- all Su won the next two points to pocket the game 19-21.

Saina controlled the third game from the start, relying on a strong array of strokes and sharp movement inside the court, the 25-year old Indian badminton star enjoyed 11-3 lead at the break. With such a huge lead Saina Nehwal faced absoultely no difficulty in closing the game and the match.

Saina will now take on the World ranked 6 Wang Shixian of China for a place in semis. Saina has a win-loss record of 6-5 against her Chinese rival.