Asia Badminton C'ship: Saina sails to quarters, Sindhu ousted

London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal entered the quarter-finals of the Asia Badminton Championships, brushing aside Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol in straight games, in Wuhan, China, on Thursday.

The fifth seeded Indian scored a 21-14, 21-18 victory over Jindapol to extend her head-to-head record against the Thai woman to 7-0.

Saina hardly broke a sweat as she went about her business, opening up early leads in both games en route to victory.

The world No 8 will take on third seeded Chinese Shixian Wang in the last eight.

Saina has a 6-7 head-to-head record against Shixian, having lost the last two encounters against her.      

P V Sindhu, the other Indian in the fray, however, suffered a 21-13, 20-22, 8-21 defeat to a deceptive Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in a match that lasted an hour.

Sindhu blew away a 12-6 lead in the second game. 

She led for most part before Tai caught up at 15-15, and even though she made it 20-19, she could not close out the issue.

In the decider, it appeared as if she had run out of steam.

Image: Saina Nehwal

Photograph: Christopher Lee/Getty Images