Saina, Prannoy, Srikanth enter Thailand GP quarters

Defending champion Saina Nehwal, H S Prannoy and K Srikanth entered the quarter-finals of the Thailand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Bangkok on Thursday.

Top seed Saina thrashed Indonesia's Febby Angguni 21-12, 21-11 in a little of over 30 minutes to set up a clash with eighth seed Juan Gu of Singapore.

Juan beat compatriot Xiaoyu Liang 21-13, 21-11 in another pre-quarter-final.

In the men's singles, Prannoy recovered from a game down to prevail over fellow-Indian 10th seed Anand Pawar 19-21, 21-13, 21-15, while 13th seed K Srikanth defeated Hwang Jong Soo of Korea 21-19, 21-15 in another match.

However, Sai Praneeth B lost to Indonesia's Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo 18-21, 21-16, 19-21 and bowed out of the tournament.

Febby was no match for Saina. The world No 2 Indian reeled off seven points to open up a huge 7-0 lead and then never looked back.

In the second game, Febby scored two points early on, but Saina did not allow the Indonesian any more chances as she pocketed seven straight points to race to 11-3 and eventually seal the issue without much ado.

Image: Saina Nehwal

Photograph: Koki Nagahama/Getty Images