World No.1 Saina Nehwal reached the quarter-finals while men's singles shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth, H.S. Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap crashed out in the second round of the $500,000 Malaysia Open Superseries Premier at the Putra Stadium here on Thursday.
Olympic bronze medallist and third seed Saina registered a facile 21-13, 21-9 win in 30 minutes against Chinese qualifier Xue Yao in the second round of the women's singles event.
In the last eight stage, the 25-year-old Hyderabadi, who currently trains under Vimal Kumar in Benagluru, will face World No.15 Sun Yu. The Chinese worked hard for her 21-17, 20-22, 21-17 victory over Malaysian Beiwen Zhang.
IBut in yet another heartbreak for India, leading Indian women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 23-21, 8-21, 17-21 in 58 minutes to the Indonesian pair of Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii.
World No.4 Srikanth faltered against World No.15 Tian Houwei of China 21-14, 21-18 in 49 minutes. In the quarter-finals, Houwei faces China's five-time World and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan, who beat World No.14 Prannoy 21-15, 21-14 in 52 minutes.
World No.17 and Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap received a 10-21, 6-21 thrashing in 35 minutes at the hands of reigning World champion Chen Long of China. In the quarter-final, World No.1 Long meets Kento Momota, who crushed Hu Yun 21-6, 21-9.
China's Olympic champion and top seed Li Xuerui set up a women's singles quarter-final with compatriot and former World champion Yihan Wang.
Reigning World champion Carolina Marin and former World No.1 Shixian Wang also advanced to the last eight stage. Spaniard Carolina defeated Iris Wang 21-15, 21-19.
Shixian will face rising Japanese shuttler Nozomi Okuhara in the quarter-final. World No.11 Okuhara tamed Thailand's former World champion Ratchanok Intanon 21-12, 21-11.
