Superb Saina subdues Yao

Press Trust of India

Kuala Lumpur, April 2: On the day she was officially crowned World No.1 in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging run with a dominating straight-game win over Chinese qualifier Xue Yao to reach the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open Super Series badminton tournament, here Thursday. Saina defeated her Chinese opponent 21-13, 21-9 in a 30-minute women’s singles clash to set up a date with another Chinese shuttler, Sun Yu.

However, the day did not turn out to be good for the other Indians. Parupalli Kashyap and H S Prannoy bowed out in men’s singles.

Kashyap suffered a 10-21, 6-21 defeat to World No. 1 Chen Long of China. Prannoy went down to two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China 15-21, 14-21 in another men’s singles match that lasted 52 minutes.

Doubles specialists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, too, suffered a loss in the second round, going down fighting 23-21, 8-21, 17-21 to the sixth-seeded Indonesian pair of Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii.

Interestingly, it was Yao who had ended Saina’s campaign at the 2014 Malaysia Open but Thursday the Indian just brushed her aside, riding on her better foot movement and powerful array of strokes.

Saina hardly broke a sweat against Yao in the first game as she led from start to finish. The closest the Chinese could come was 11-12 but the Indian soon changed gears and marched ahead to lead 1-0.

In the second game, Saina broke off at 3-3 and slowly but steadily surged ahead to eventually close it without much ado at the Putra Stadium here. Up next is Sun, against who Saina has a 2-1 record.