SPORTS

Saina, Srikanth enter quarters of Malaysia Masters

Source:PTI
January 17, 2019

IMAGE: Saina Nehwal will play second seed and 2017 World champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the last-eight stage. Photograph: PTI

Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth produced yet another fine display to progress to the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Saina, seeded seventh, took 39 minutes to tame Hong Kong's Pui Yin Yip 21-14, 21-16 in her second round encounter.

 

The London Olympics bronze medallist will play second seed and 2017 World champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the last-eight stage of the first Super 500 tournament of the year on Friday.

World no. 9 Saina holds an 8-4 overall head-to-head record against Okuhara, which includes back-to-back wins over the current World No. 2 in the last two tournaments -- last year's Demark Open and the French Open.

In the men's singles, Srikanth continued his unbeaten run with a hard-fought 23-21, 8-21, 21-18 win over Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent to set up a fight with fourth seeded Korean Son Wan Ho.

The seventh seeded Indian, who had a title-less run last season, has a 4-5 head-to-head count against the Korean World No. 5.

Former Commonwealth Games champion Parapulli Kashyap, however, bowed out of the tournament after his fight ended with a 17-21, 23-25 loss to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.

The women's doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also suffered a 18-21, 17-21 loss to Indonesian combination of Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istarani and Rizki Amelia Pradipta.

 

Source: PTI
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