Saina Nehwal reaches Singapore Open quarterfinal

SINGAPORE: Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinal of women's singles but Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhat bowed out of the men's draw after losing their second round matches in Aviva Singapore Open badminton championship here.

Nehwal carved out a 21-19, 21-17 win against local qualifier Juan Gu in the second round to set up a quarterfinal clash with Firdasari Adrianti of Indonesia. It would be a tough match for Nehwal as she will have to tame giant-killer Adrianti, who knocked off top seed P.I. Hongyan of France 21-16, 20-22, 21-16 to reach the last eight.

There was disappointment in the men's section as both the Indians in fray lost their matches.

Bhat gave a tough fight to Denmark's Joachim Persson before going down 11-21, 27-25, 15-21.

Sridhar, who had been in fine form in the season, was lacklustre as he lost 17-21, 13-21 to Malaysia's Sairul Amar Ayob.