All England Championships: Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth enter quarterfinals; Sai Praneeth crashes out

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Birmingham, March 7: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal progressed to the quarterfinals of the All England Championships with a come-from-behind win over Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in the women's singles competition here on Thursday.

In the men’s singles final World No. 8 Kidambi Srikanth put up a clinical display to get the better off Jonatan Christie in a thrilling contest, which lasted nearly an hour, winning the tie 21-17, 11-21, 21-12. With the win Srikanth also secured a quarterfinal berth.

A 2015 finalist, Saina was blown away by world no 19 Line in the opening game but the experienced campaigner kept her cool to take the match to the decider and eventually come up trumps against her Danish rival.

The eighth seeded Indian rallied her way to a 8-21, 21-16, 21-13 win over the 24-year-old Line in a 51-minute match and is expected to take on her nemesis and two-time champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, an opponent who defeated her in last 12 outings.

Earlier, Saina had defeated Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour 21-17, 21-18 in 35 minutes in her opening match on Wednesday night.

In men's singles, former Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth's fight lasted just 35 minutes as he went down 12-21, 17-21 to 24-year-old Ng Ka Long Angus, who had denied Sameer Verma a title win at the 2016 Hong Kong Super Series. It was his third loss to the World no 15 from Hong Kong.