Macau: Top seed Saina Nehwal in women’s singles and B Sai Praneeth in men’s singles registered contrasting victories to advance to the quarterfinals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Thursday.
Saina registered a narrow 17-21, 21-18, 21-12 victory over Indonesia’s Dinar Dyah Ayustine to book her place in the last eight round. London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina will next take on China’s Zhang Yiman.
However, Praneeth was in control of his demolition of fifth seed Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-15, 21-17 in a match which lasted 48 minutes.
Both games saw the Indian shuttler overpowering his opponent with some swift court movements and powerful strokes to clinch the issue. Praneeth built up an early lead in both the games and never allowed his much-fancied rival to comeback in the match.
However, it was curtains for Parupalli Kashyap and doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy. Kashyap, who is on a comeback trail, put up a gallant fight before losing 13-21, 20-22 to Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei in a 45-minute duel.
Third seeds Manu and Sumeeth also fought hard before going down 20-22, 19-21 to Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Hendra Wijaya.
In the women’s singles match, Saina blew a 11-7 lead in the opening game to see Ayustine move ahead and earn the bragging rights.
However, a determined Saina dished out a more dominating performance in the second game as she zoomed to a 11-3 lead at the break. Ayustine slowly and steadily bridged the gap after interval and drew parity at 18-18 but the Indian ensured there was no hiccup as she bounced back into the contest.
In the decider, it was the Indonesian shuttler who held a slender 4-2 lead early on but Saina turned the tables at 5-5 and moved ahead, opening up a 11-8 lead at the interval.
Saina then reeled off four points to extend the lead and eventually sealed the match with another four-point burst.
However, the former World No. 1 stated that she is yet to attain peak match fitness. “It takes time,” Saina said after the game. “I am returning after a long lay-off and the only way to attain match fitness is to play more competitive tournaments. Hopefully, I can continue to win here a few more matches. You may train as hard as you can, but there is no substitute for match practice.”
PTI
