Asian Badminton: Saina, Sindhu seal quarterfinal spot

Last Indian to take the court on Thursday, Saina cruised to a comfortable straight set win against Korea's Kim Ga Eun.

Saina Nehwal of India hits a return against Kim Ga-eun of South Korea during their women's singles second round match at the 2019 Badminton Asia Championships in China (AFP).

Ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu registered straight-game wins to sail into the quarterfinals of the Asia Badminton Championship here Thursday.

London Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who was the last Indian to take the court on Thursday, needed just 38 minutes to get the better of Kim Ga Eun of Korea to enter the last eight round of the women’s singles event. She outclassed Ga Eun 21-13, 21-13.

The seventh seed has a tough encounter on the cards though, playing third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.

Sindhu, seeded fourth, took just 33 minutes to get the better of Indonesia’s Choirunnisa 21-15, 21-19 in a one-sided women’s singles match.

The world number six will next play the unseeded Cai Yanyan of China in the quarterfinals.

Read: Shuttlers blame BAI for missing Asian Badminton Championship

In the men’s singles, Sameer Verma brushed aside Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus 21-12, 21-19.

But a Herculean task awaits Sameer in the last eight round as he will clash with second seed Shi Yuqi of China.

India’s mixed doubles pair of Utkarsh Arora and Karishma Wadkar crashed out in the second round after losing 21-10, 21-15 to Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia.

There was another defeat in store in the mixed doubles as the combination of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan too perished in the second round after losing 10-21 9-21 against second seeded Chinese duo of Yilyu Wang and Dongping Huang.