Saina Nehwal Enters Quarters of Japan Open

Tokyo, September 23: India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal entered the quarterfinals of the Japan Open Superseries event with a 21-17, 21-16 victory over Mingtian Fu of Singapore in the second round here Thursday.

Saina will meet Mingtian’s compatriot Juan Gu in a last eight match Friday.

The other Indians in the fray crashed out of the tournament by losing their second round matches.

World No. 23 Parupalli Kashyap went down 15-21, 21-6, 18-21 to sixth seed Jin Chen of China in the men’s singles event.

Ajay Jayaram, who shocked Wold No. 7 Tien Minh Nguyen in the first round, fought hard against Indonesia’s Simon Santoso before losing 20-22, 16-21.

The women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa and the mixed doubles combination of Jwala and V. Diju also lost in the second round.

–IANS