Saina, Srikanth advance to pre-quarters of Hong Kong Open

Kidambi Srikanth continued his giant-killing spree while Saina Nehwal hardly broke a sweat to
advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the USD 350,000 Hong Kong Super Series in Kowloon on Wednesday.

Srikanth, who had stunned five-time world champion Lin Dan in the China Open Super Series Premier final last week to become the first male shuttler to win a Super Series Premier event, shocked seventh seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 22-2,0 21-16 in his men's singles campaign opener.

In the women's singles, Saina, who also bagged the China Open title, needed just 27 minute to beat unseeded Jamie Subandhi of United States 21-17, 21-11 in her campaign opener.

Teen sensation P V Sindhu also started her campaign on a winning note to book a pre-quarterfinal berth. Seventh seed Sindhu, who had skipped the China Open, notched up a thrilling 21-15, 16-21, 21-19 win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbumrungpan in a women's singles match that lasted 52 minutes.

Ajay Jayaram, who had won Dutch Open Grand Prix last month, proved no match for top seed Chen Long of China as he went down 13-21, 7-21 in another men's singles match.

Another Indian in the fray in men's singles, R M V Gurusaidutt also lost in the first round, going down to Sho Sasaki of Japan 15-21, 21-15, 20-22 in a close match that lasted a little over one hour. 

It was curtains for the men's and women's doubles pairs also as they suffered contrasting defeats to bow out of the competition. 

While 2011 World Championship bronze medallists, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa fought bravely before going down 21-16, 14-21, 21-23 to Malaysian pair of Yin Loo Lim and Lee Meng Yean in women's doubles, men's combination of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy went down 15-21, 17-21 to second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.

Image: Kidambi Srikanth

Photograph: Stanley Chou/Getty Images