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It was a mixed day in the office for the Indian shuttlers as Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth moved into the quarterfinals while Parupalli Kashyap and women's doubles pairing of Ashwani Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy crashed out of the Super 500 tournament played at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal had no problems in winning her match against Hong Kong's Yip Y P. The Indian star defeated her opponent in two straight games 21-14, 21-16 to move into the quarterfinals.
Saina will now take on Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the quarterfinals tomorrow over whom she has a head to head 8-4 lead.
Saina Nehwal needs to be at her best to move forward in the tournament as the Japanese will look to avenge the last two defeats handed by the Indian.
In the men’s singles, it was not as easy for Kidambi Srikanth as he defeated qualifier Wong W K of Hong Kong in three grueling sets. It was a tough first game as both players fought for each point with Kidambi holding his nerves to win the 1st game 23-21.
Wong K of Hong Kong showed his class in the 2nd game and completely outplayed India's No. 1 men's shuttler to win it 21-8 and force the match into the decider. In the decider, Kidambi Srikanth regained his composure and played with more precision to win the 3rd game 21-18 and move into quarterfinals. He will now take on the 4th seed Son Wan-ho of South Korea in the quarterfinals.
However, the doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy lost to the Indonesian pair of Istarani and Pradipta in two straight games 18-21, 17-21 to be knocked out of the tournament. Also, newly married Parupalli Kashyap crashed out of the tournament after losing to Indonesian A S Ginting 21-17, 25-23.
