Agencies
BASEL, Mar 14: Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal set up a quarterfinal clash with world number three and top seed Chinese Yihan Wang, while Commonwealth Games bronze winner Parupalli Kashyap, too, entered the last eight in the $125,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold tournament. The 23-year-old from Hyderabad registered an easy 21-7 21-13 win over Sashina Vignes Waran of France in the pre-quarterfinals that lasted 34 minutes in the women's singles competition. Kashyap, on the other hand, had to toil hard before prevailing over Malaysia's Beryno Jiann Tze Wong 21-23 21-9 21-14 in a 57-minute men's singles match at St. Jakobshalle. He will next take on Chinese Taipei's Tien Chen Chou in the quarterfinals.
Saina, who had beaten Sashina in the same tournament in 2011 and 2013, didn't have any problem whatsoever and in five giant strides snatched the opening game, moving to 6-1 and then 13-2, before closing it with three straight points from 18-7. |
