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 in Kuala Lumpur 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 Young 25-23, 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest.
This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarter-finals of the French Open last year.
The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the quarter-finals.
Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium in the opening round on Wednesday.
In the men's singles, India's challenge ended after both Sameer Verma and H S Prannoy crashed out in the second round.
While Verma lost to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 19-21, 20-22, Prannoy was shown the door by top seed Kento Momota of Japan 14-21, 16-21.
