Date:13/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/13/stories/2008061352681800.htm

Sport - Badminton

Saina in quarterfinals

New Delhi: Saina Nehwal breezed into the women’s singles quarterfinals and remains the lone Indian in the fray after compatriots Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhatt crashed out of men’s singles in the Singapore Open badminton championships on Thursday.

National champion Saina took just 29 minutes to overpower qualifier and local favourite Juan Gu 21-19, 21-17 to storm into the quarterfinals.

She will now take on Indonesia’s Firdasari Adrianti, who stunned top seed Homgyan Pi of France 21-16, 20-22, 21-6.

Meanwhile, Sridhar lost to Sairul Amar Ayob of Malaysia 17-21, 13-21 in a lopsided second round affair that lasted just 33 minutes.

Bhatt put up a slightly better show against Joachim Persson of Denmark and managed to snatch a game as well before going down 11-21, 27-25, 15-21 in 53 minutes. — PTI