Saina, Kashyap, Sourabh in Thailand Open QF

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold after a thrilling victory in the second round of the women's singles in Bangkok on Thursday.

World No 4 Saina beat unseeded Japanese Mitani Minatsu 21-13, 15-21, 21-7 in a 46-minute match to set up a clash with seventh seed Xuerui Li on Friday.

In the men's singles, India's top-ranked player P Kashyap and young gun Sourabh Verma registered contrasting victories in the pre-quarter-finals.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kashyap, seeded 14th, outlasted Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif of Malaysia 21-16, 19-21, 21-12 in 58 minutes.

The Andhra Pradesh lad meets top seed Chen Long of China on Friday.

Madhya Pradesh's Sourabh, who turned heads with a giant-killing show at the Indian Open Super Series in April, continued his rampaging run and defeated Beng Hong Kuan of Malaysia 21-19, 23-25, 21-14.

The 21-year-old will take on third seeded Korean Sung Hwan Park in the quarter-finals.

While the singles players impressed, the doubles pairs disappointed, both the men's and women's combos becoming first round causalities.

Up against the fifth seeded Chinese pair of Biao Chai and Zhendong Guo, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas went down 8-21, 14-21 in 30 minutes.

The eighth seeded women's pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also couldn't cross the first round, losing 21-23, 13-21 to Lok Yan Poon and Ying Suet Tse.