Sindhu, Nehwal reach Australian Open quarters

Rio-Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu produced a spectacular performance as she fended off Chen Xiaoxin of China in straight games to cement her place in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Super Series here on Thursday.

The fifth-seed remained dominated throughout the match as she clinched a comfortable 21-13, 21-18 win over Xiaoxin in a second-round women's singles clash that lasted 46 minutes at the Sydney Olympic Park.

With the win, Sindhu has now set up a clash against top-ranked Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan for a place in the last-four.

In another women's singles clash, Indian tennis ace Saina Nehwal also secured a last-eight berth in the tournament after beating Malaysia's Soniia Cheah.

After comfortably winning the first game, Nehwal went down in the second before she bounced back to clinch a 21-15, 20-22, 21-14 triumph over her Malaysian opponent.

Nehwal will now meet sixth-ranked SUN Yu, who made it to the quarter-finals following a 21-14, 21-17 win over Jang Mi LEE of Korea.

Meanwhile, the Indian women's double pair of Ashwini Ponappa and N. Sikki Reddy suffered a major blow as they bowed out of the tournament after going down 21-18, 18-21, 13-21 against the Japanese team of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto in an encounter that lasted one hour and five minutes.