Saina, Prannoy in quarters

Bangkok (PTI): Defending champion Saina Nehwal, H S Prannoy and K Srikanth today reached the quarterfinals of the Thailand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Thursday. Top seed Saina thrashed Indonesia's Febby Angguni 21-12, 21-11 in just over half an hour to set up a clash with eighth seed Juan Gu of Singapore. Juan beat compatriot Xiaoyu Liang 21-13, 21-11 in another prequarterfinal match. In men's singles, Prannoy bounced from a game down to prevail over fellow Indian 10th seed Anand Pawar 19-21, 21-13, 21-15, while 13th seed K Srikanth defeated Hwang Jong Soo of Korea 21-19, 21-15 in another match. Febby was no match for Saina as the world number two Indian reeled off seven points to open up a huge 7-0 lead and then held her fort to pocket the game. In the second game, Febby took two points early on but Saina didn't give any chance to the Indonesian thereafter as she pocketed seven straight points to reach 11-3 and eventually seal the issue without much ado.