Saina, Sindhu enter quarters

Shah Alam : Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu continued their winning run at the Malaysia Open, notching up contrasting victories to reach the quarterfinals of the women's singles competition at the $550,000 Super Series Premier tournament here on Thursday.

After Sindhu edged out Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, seeded seventh, 22-20, 21-17 in a 47-minute clash, Saina brushed aside another Korean Bae Yeon Ju 21-10, 21-16 in a match that lasted a little over half an hour.

The two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, Sindhu had lost to Sung Ji at Hyderabad during the Asian badminton Championship team event but today avenged the loss and took her head-to-head record against the Korean to 5-3.

The 20-year-old from Hyderabad will next meet former World Champion and two-time India Open winner Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, while Saina has set up a meeting with Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who stunned All England champion Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, seeded 8th, 21-12, 22-20.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina, seeded third, stamped her authority on the second round clash against Bae as she reached a 11-3 lead at the interval in both the games and didn't give much chance to her opponent to make a comeback.

Saina has now beaten the Korean nine times in 13 meetings. Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying stunned Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China, seeded second, 14-21 21-18 21-1 in another second round match. Interestingly, Li had reached the finals at India Open last week.