Kuala Lumpur: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday came out with a spectacular performance as she defeated South Korea's An Se Young in her second-round clash of the ongoing Malaysia Masters. The London Olympics bronze medallist defeated eight-seed Young 25-23, 21-12 in a match that lasted for 39 minutes to make it to the quarter-finals.
In the first game, Saina was made to work hard by the 17-year-old as both the shuttlers kept going at each other. But, it was the Indian who had the last laugh and ultimately won the game 25-23. The Hyd0erabadi shuttler, however, didn't have to sweat too much in the second game as she won comfortably by a 21-12 margin to enter the last eight of the competition. Saina on Wednesday had registered a convincing 21-15, 21-17 win over Belgium's Lianne Tan.
She will now face Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain -- who defeated China's Cai Yanyan 21-4, 24-22 -- for a semi-final berth in the Super 500 tournament.
A day earlier on Wednesday, PV Sindhu cruised into the second round of the women's singles event after winning her first-round game. Rio Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, seeded sixth, didn't have to work too hard in her contest as she defeated Evgeniya Andreevna Kosetskaya of Russia 21-15, 21-13 in just 35 minutes.
In the men's singles, Parupalli Kashyap suffered a 17-21, 16-21 loss to Japan's Kento Momota in the contest lasting for 33 minutes. Praneeth made a first round exit after suffering a 11-21, 15-21 defeat to Denmark''s Rasmus Gemke in 46 minutes. Srikanth, on the other hand, lost his second seed encounter to World No.2 Taiwan''s Chou Tien Chen 17-21, 5-21 in a match that lasted for only 30 minutes. This was his fifth consecutive loss against Chou.
Sameer Verma however, kept his journey alive after a 21-16, 21-15 win over Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen. Sameer's compatriot H.S. Prannoy also entered the second round after defeating Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama 21-9, 21-17.
