The Hindu : Sport : Saina outlasts Intanon, enters quarterfinals

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Saina outlasts Intanon, enters quarterfinals

Johor Bahru: Saina Nehwal continued her dream run to reach the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a three-game win over Intanon Ratchanok here on Thursday.

The second-seeded Indian rallied to outlast the Thai 18-21, 21-12, 21-18 to set up a last eight showdown with Chinese qualifier Xin Wang.

Xin eliminated the sixth-seeded Japanese Ai Goto 21-14, 21-14 in another pre-quarterfinal.

In a see-saw battle, Intanon had the upper hand when she overcame Saina in the first game. Even though the Indian played well, it was the Thai who went ahead.

With her back to the wall, Saina, ranked eighth in the world, switched into an aggressive mode in the next game. She took a 9-6 lead before racing away with the game.

The decider turned out to be a humdinger. Saina stormed ahead 10-5, but the Thai reeled off four straight points. With the match tantalisingly poised, Saina changed gears to seal the issue.

However, it was curtains for Arvind Bhatt and Ajay Jayaram in the men’s singles event.

The ninth-seeded Arvind was thrashed by Chinese Long Chen 5-21, 11-21 in just 27 minutes, while Ajay went down to Yun Hu of Hong Kong 15-21, 14-21 within half-an-hour.

Diju-Jwala in last eight

Meanwhile, India’s mixed doubles combination of V. Diju and Jwala Gutta brushed aside the Malaysian duo of Wee Tat Tan and Hui Ern Ng 21-12, 21-12 to move into the quarterfinals.

The men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas won its first round match against the sixth-seeded Chinese duo of Zhiben Chen and Ye Shen 14-21, 21-15, 21-16. — PTI

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