Badminton Asia Championship: Order of Play, Friday, 24 April, 2015

Saina Nehwal had to struggle to get past Nozomi Okahura of Japan in the pre-quarters.

It was a day of mixed fortunes for Indian shuttlers at the Dong Feng Citroen Badminton Asia Championship. While Saina Nehwal, who recently reclaimed her top ranking in women’s badminton and P V Sindhu registered wins to seal their respective spots in the quarter-finals, Parupalli Kashyap’s campaign was brought to a halt by Zhengming Wang.

After having been awarded byes in the first two rounds at the event, Saina faced Nozomi Okuhara in the third round. In a match that tested the abilities of both players, the Indian ace displayed great resolve to win the contest, 21-14, 10-21, 21-10.

P V Sindhu, on the other hand, hardly broke a sweat as she dispatched Teng Lok U of Macau in straight games, 21-8, 21-9 to set up a mouth-watering contest against World Number two Li Xuerui.

Kashyap gave everything he had in the pre-quarter contest against Zhengming Wang but it proved insufficient as he was defeated 23-21, 17-21, 18-21. It was also a disappointing day for India in the doubles category as Manu Attri and Sumeet Reddy fell to Xiaolong Liu and Zihan Qiu in straight games, 10-21, 13-21.

However, Indian badminton fans can still look forward to the matches featuring Saina and Sindhu on Friday. Given below are the match-ups of the two Indian shuttlers on the fifth day of the Badminton Asia Championship along with the tentative timing.

Match-up	Tentative schedule
(8) P V Sindhu v/s (1) Li Xuerui	Not before 02:00 PM (IST)
(2) Saina Nehwal v/s (5) Tzu Ying Tai	Not before 01: 30 PM (IST)