Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap continued their winning run to reach the quarterfinals of the All England Championship with contrasting victories in Birmingham.
World number three Saina defeated Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia 21-16 21-11 in a 34-minute women's singles match at the National Indoor Arena here. The 22-year-old will next take on sixth seed Chinese Shixian Wang later in the day.
London Olympics quarterfinalist Kashyap notched up a stunning 21-18 21-12 victory over world number six Kenichi Tago in the men's singles prequarterfinals. He had lost to the Japanese in the China Open in 2011.
The Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Indian will next take on second seed Chen Long of China. The Indian had lost thrice to Long but in their most recent encounter at the Indonesia Open last year, the Kashyap had an upperhand.
However, it was curtains for young shuttlers PV Sindhu and Sourabh Verma, who went down in straight games to superior opponents in the prequarterfinals last night.
World number 16 Sindhu suffered a 17-21 14-21 loss to fourth seed Juliane Schenk of Germany in a 39-minute women's singles match here, while World number 43 Sourabh fought hard before going down 19-21 19-21 to number eight Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen.
Champ's warning
Former Olympic champion Poul-Erik Høyer has issued a warning that badminton's Olympic future is at stake and that it must broaden its horizons if it is to survive within the movement. Remaining in the Olympics is so important for badminton's funding, development and prestige that it is hard to see how the sport would continue making progress without it.
Champ's warning
Former Olympic champion Poul-Erik Høyer has issued a warning that badminton's Olympic future is at stake and that it must broaden its horizons if it is to survive within the movement. Remaining in the Olympics is so important for badminton's funding, development and prestige that it is hard to see how the sport would continue making progress without it.
"Our Olympic status has definitely been put at risk," warned the Dane who caused a sensation by winning the men's singles gold medal at Atlanta in 1996."