Malaysia Masters: Saina, Srikanth in quarters, Kashyap bows out

TIL Desk Sports/ London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth registered victories in their single’s matches to advance to the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Masters here on Thursday. In a 39 minute affair, Saina, seeded seventh, outclassed Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip 21-14, 21-16 in her second round encounter.

Saina will now take on second seed Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara. On the other hand, Srikanth, also seeded seventh, took 65 minutes to edge past Wong Wing Ki Vincent 23-21, 8-21, 21-18 and maintain his unbeaten run. Srikanth will now face fourth seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea in the last-eight stage of the tournament.

However, there was bad news for India from the women’s doubles as the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down to Indonesia’s Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istarani and Rizki Amelia Pradipta 18-21, 17-21 in the second round. Also, former Commonwealth Games champion Parapulli Kashyap bowed out of the tournament after a 17-21, 23-25 loss to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.