Indian ace shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal sailed into the women's singles quarterfinals of the USD 355,000 Singapore Open with a straight-game win over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt here Thursday.
Fourth-seeded Sindhu took 39 minutes to get the better of world number 22 Mia 21-13 21-19, her second straight win over the Danish girl, who had clinched the Spain Masters this year.
World number 6 Sindhu will next face China's Cai Yanyan, a BWF World Junior Championships bronze medallist.
While Sindhu led throughout the first game after opening up a 3-0 advantage, the Indian was locked in a tight battle with Mia in the second till 8-8 and was trailing 11-15 at one stage.
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However, Sindhu managed to claw back 17-17 and then nosed ahead to seal the issue in her favour.
Sindhu had reached the semifinals at the India Open last month. P V Sindhu had it easy but Saina Nehwal was tested.
Sixth seed Saina, however, had to work hard in her bid to avenge a Malaysia Open first-round loss to Pornpawee Chochuwong before pulling off a thrilling 21-16 18-21 21-19 win over the Thai shuttler in the second round.
The London Olympic bronze medallist will next square off against second-seeded Japanese Nozomi Okuhara.
While Saina was plotting the downfall of Chochuwong, her husband and fellow shuttler Parupalli Kashyap was locked in a fierce battle with reigning Olympic champion, Chen Long of China.
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Kashyap, a 2014 Commonwealth Games champion, stretched Chen to three games before narrowly losing 9-21 21-15 16-21 to the fourth-seeded Chinese, who had reached the finals at Malaysia Open last year.
Sameer Verma, however, continued his impressive run, beating China's Lu Guangzu 21-15 21-18 to set up a clash with either second-seeded Taipei player Chou Tien Chen or Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen.
(With PTI inputs)
