Saina, Kashyap progress to pre-quarters at India GP Gold

Top seeds Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the $120,000 India Grand Prix Gold after earning easy wins at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here Wednesday.

While Saina notched up a 21-7, 21-9 win in her women's singles first round match against Swedish Matilda Petersen in 28 minutes, Kashyap took the same amount of time to beat Malaysia's Yee Han Chong 21-10, 21-12 in Round 2.

The World No.8 Saina was totally dominant in a one-sided affair. Saina announced her intentions with an initial 6-0 lead against the tall World No.117 Matilda in their first encounter.

The Swedish just could not match the Hyderabadi's speed and agility and Saina, taking advantage of that, tired out her opponent by making Matilda run from one corner of the court to the other.

The Indian took huge leads in both the games and finished off the contest on her first matchpoint. The top seed next faces Russia's Natalia Perminova in the second round.

Meanwhile, apart from Kashyap, second seed Ajay Jayaram, third seed R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, reigning national champion and sixth seed Kidambi Srikanth also progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of men's singles after winning their respective second round matches.

Only the men's singles draw has 64 players. All other draws have 32.