Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu march into Malaysia Masters quarterfinals

Saina Nehwal enters quarterfinal of Malaysia Masters

Kuala Lumpur, January 9: Saina Nehwal stormed into the women's singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament with a straight-game win over South Korea's An Se Young here on Thursday (January 9).

The unseeded Indian, who had won the Indonesia Masters last year before going through a rough patch, dispatched Young 25-23, 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest.

This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year.

The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the quarterfinals.

Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-15 21-17 in the opening round on Wednesday (January 8).

Meanwhile, India's top women's shuttler, PV Sindhu also won her second round in a convincing fashion to enter the quarterfinals.

Sindhu got the better of Japan's Aya Ohori, securing a 21-10, 21-15 win in just 34 minutes and march into the next round. The Japanese put up a fight in the second game after Sindhu won the first game comfortable. But Ohori failed to stop the Indian shuttler who entered the quarters.

While the women notched up convincing wins on Thursday, the men endured a rough day. It was curtains for both Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy.

Sameer went down fighting to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia. Verma missed out on a quarters berth after going down 21-14, 21-16 to the Malaysian.

Meanwhile, Prannoy too crashed out after losing to Japanese shuttler Kento Momota. Momota ended the Indians campaign in 45-minutes as he defeated Prannoy 21-14, 21-16.