Saina sails into quarters of Malaysia Open, Jwala-Ashwini lose

Officially crowned World no. 1 in the Badminton World Federation rankings, Saina Nehwal on Thursday continued her rampaging run with a dominating straight-game win over Chinese qualifier Xue Yao to reach the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open Super Series in Kuala Lumpur.

Saina, who won the India Open recently, defeated Yao 21-13, 21-9 in a lop-sided 30-minute women's singles to set up a clash with another Chinese shuttler, Sun Yu, ranked 15th in the world.

However, it was curtains for Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap and Indonesian Masters winner H S Prannoy in the men's singles competition.

Kashyap, who has slipped to 17th in the rankings following a dip in performance due to a spate of injuries, suffered a 10-21, 6-21 defeat to World no. 1 Chen Long of China.

Prannoy, who jumped three places to 14th after his giant-killing exploits at the India Open, went down to two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China 15-21, 14-21 in 52 minutes.

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, too, suffered a loss in the second round, going down fighting 23-21, 8-21, 17-21 to sixth seeded Indonesian pair of Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii.

Interestingly, it was Yao who had ended Saina's campaign at the 2014 Malaysia Open but the Indian extracted revenge in style, courtesy of her better foot movement and powerful array of strokes.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina hardly broke a sweat against Yao in the first game as she led from start to finish. The closest the Chinese could come was 11-12 but the Indian soon changed gears and marched ahead to lead 1-0.

In the second game, Saina broke off at 3-3 and slowly but steadily surged ahead to eventually close it without much ado at the Putra Stadium.