Srikanth in quarters; Saina, Sindhu ousted

Newly-crowned Indian national badminton champion Kidambi Srikanth continued his impressive run to enter the quarterfinals while Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu lost their second round matches at the $500,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier here Thursday.

World No.38 Srikanth, who also beat Hong Kong's World No.11 Hu Yun Wednesday, upset South Korean World No.17 Wan Ho Son 11-21, 21-19, 21-19 in a marathon men's singles match which lasted an hour and nine minutes at the Putra Stadium.

The Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold winner, who had a 1-0 record against Son, kept his nerves to eke out the closely fought second and third games after losing the first. The 20-year-old will next take on seasoned campaigner and World No.4 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.

Elsewhere, eighth seed Saina was upset by Chinese World No.25 Xue Yao in 56 minutes with Xue winning 16-21, 21-10, 21-19 in their first ever career meet. After sharing the first two games, World No.8 Saina led in the initial part of the decider (10-8) but thereafter XUE not just clawed back but took a significant 18-14 lead.

The Olympic bronze medallist fought back to equalise at 19-all but Xue maintained her calm to win the next two important points to clinch the game and match, proceeding to the quarterfinals.

Sindhu, on the other hand, was ousted by South Korean sixth seed Yeon Ju Bae on Court 1. The World No.7 Korean won 21-16, 21-19 in 45 minutes to take a 2-0 lead in career meetings over the Hyderabadi.

Parupalli Kashyap will play his men's singles second round match later Thursday.