Saina Nehwal storms into Malaysia Masters semis

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal booked her place in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after crushing Indonesia's Fitriani Fitriani in straight games in women's singles event here on Friday.

The top-seed, who made a first-round exit in the Rio Olympics in August due to a knee injury which required surgery, dished out a dominating show to swept aside eighth-seed Fitriani 21-15, 21-14 in a one-sided quarter-final clash that lasted 40 minutes.

Saina , the London Olympics bronze medallist, will now take on Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin for a place in the summit showdown. Saina has a 6-2 head-to-head record against Yin, who had previously defeated the Indian at 2010 Asian Games.

In men's singles event, sixth-seed Ajay Jayaram suffered a major blow as he has been crashed out of the tournament after going down 13-21,8-21 at the hands of Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.

It was Jayaram's third defeat to the Indonesian, having lost to him at Hyderabad Asia Team Championship as well as in French Open.