Saina Nehwal and reigning world champion P.V. Sindhu produced dominating performances to progress to the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
Sixth seed Sindhu notched up a commanding 21-10 21-15 victory over Japan’s Aya Ohori in a pre-quarterfinal match lasting just 34 minutes. It was Sindhu’s ninth successive win over Ohori.
The 24-year-old Indian, who won the World Championships in Basel last year, will take on either world number 1 Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying or seventh seed South Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the quarterfinals.
Saina, who had won the Indonesia Masters last year before going through a rough patch, dispatched South Korea’s An Se Young 25-23 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest to make the last eight.
This is Saina’s first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year.
The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin.
Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-15 21-17 in the opening round on Wednesday. Malaysia Masters: Saina, Sindhu through to 2nd round; Sai Praneeth, Srikanth bow out
In the men’s singles, Sameer Verma faltered in the second round, losing to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia 19-21 20-22.
