Saina in Japan Open QF; others Indians disappoint

Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal emerged India's lone survivor at the Japan Open after defeating Mingtian Fu of Singapore in straight games, in Tokyo, on Thursday.

The fourth seed took 33 minutes to register a 21-17, 21-16 victory and enter the quarter-finals, where she will take on Juan GU of Singapore on Friday.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist P Kashyap also played his heart out but went down 15-21, 21-6, 18-21 to sixth seed Jin Chen in a men's singles match that lasted for 66 minutes.

Ajay Jayaram, who stunned World No 7 Tien Minh Nguyen on Wednesday, was also a second round casualty, losing 20-22, 16-21 to Indonesia's Simon Santoso in 42 minutes.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also bowed out, failing to get past seventh seeds Jung Eun Ha and Min Jung Kim of Korea in the women's doubles event.

The Indian duo lost 9-21, 21-18, 22-24 in 49 minutes.

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Jwala and V Diju also lost their second round match 15-21, 10-21 to the fifth seeded pair of Hung Ling Chen and Wen Hsing Cheng in just 24 minutes.

The 21-year-old Saina did well to keep the tricolour fluttering at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

In the first game, she opened up a narrow 9-5 lead, and though Mingtian caught up with her at 14-all, the Indian held firm to take the game.

In the second game, Mingtian dominated initially and had her nose ahead at 6-4, but Saina drew parity at 13-all and broke away at 15-15, scoring six straight points to seal a place in the quarter-finals.