Saina enters quarterfinals

India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a 21-15, 21-10 win over of Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria here.

Saina, who is the defending champion and top seed here, took exactly half an hour to get the better of Nedelcheva in the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s singles event on Thursday.

By virtue of this win, Saina, who reclaimed World No. 2 position, took a 6-2 head-to-head lead over 23rd ranked Nedelcheva.

Barring Saina, all other players from India made early exits.

Rising star P. V. Sindhu made an exit from the tournament after losing to qualifier Yui Hashimito of Japan 23-21, 21-11 in a second round contest of the women’s singles event.