Kuala Lumpur, Jan 17:
After reaching a career high world number 2 status, Olympic bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal cruised into the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open Super Series with a straight-game victory over Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip here today.
The Hyderabadi, who entered the tournament as the top seed dominated the proceedings of the women’s singles match right from the start to defeat Yin Yip 21-12 21-9 in only half an hour.
The 22-year-old Saina will next take on Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the quarterfinals at the National Sports Complex here.
Saina has never faced off with the world number 33 Japanese shuttler, who beat Indonesian Lindaweni Fanetri 21-13 21-13 in another match.
However, India’s top male shuttler, Parupalli Kashyap went down fighting to sixth seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 17-21 14-21 in the second round of the men’s singles event.
The Olympic quarterfinalist, Kashyap, who also jumped one spot to crack the world number 10 bracket, however, could not reach the quarterfinals as he struggled with his right leg against Danish Jan Jorgensen, following a muscle pull suffered yesterday in the first round.
Saina, who had reached her career best world no 2 in December 2010 for the first time, was lagging behind initially but she rode on her 12 smash winners to tame Pui Yin Yip, who played well at the nets. (PTI)
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