E-Paper
Saina keeps hopes alive at All England
Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships with an easy victory over her Chinese Taipei opponent on Thursday.
Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships with an easy victory over her Chinese Taipei opponent on Thursday.
Saina, seeded fifth in the prestigious tournament, beat unseeded Tzu Ying Tai 21-17, 21-17 in a second-round match that lasted 30 minutes. In the quarterfinals, she will meet Eriko Hirose of Japan.
The first game saw a neck-and-neck tussle between the two as they were 8-8 and then 14-14. But after that, Saina won five consecutive points to race to 19-14 before taking the game.
In women's doubles, the Indian duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashiwni Ponnappa suffered a heartbreak as they lost to Denmark's Line Damkjaer Kruse and Marie Roepke 17-21, 21-19, 21-18 in a hard-fought second-round match.
In men's doubles, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost to the eighth-seeded Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Bona Septano 16-21, 16-21 in the second round.
