Sports
Saina in quarters, Prannoy, Kashyap lose in Malaysia Open
Kuala Lumpur, April 2
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.