Saina Nehwal and reigning world champion P V Sindhu produced dominating performances to progress to the women's singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament, on Thursday.
Sixth seed Sindhu notched up a commanding 21-10 21-15 victory over Japan's Aya Ohori in a pre-quarterfinal match lasting just 34 minutes. It was Sindhu's ninth successive win over Ohori.
The 24-year-old Indian, who won the World Championships in Basel last year, will take on either world number 1 Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying or seventh seed South Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the quarterfinals.
Saina, who had won the Indonesia Masters last year before going through a rough patch, dispatched South Korea's An Se Young 25-23 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest to make the last eight.
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This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year.
The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin.
Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-15 21-17 in the opening round on Wednesday.
In the men's singles, Sameer Verma faltered in the second round, losing to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 19-21 20-22.
