World Badminton Championships: Saina Nehwal, Sai Praneeth march to pre-quarterfinals

Glasgow: Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and B Sai Praneeth reached the pre-quarterfinal of BWF World Badminton Championship 2017 in Glasgow on Wednesday.

Saina took just over half an hour to beat Sabrina Jaquet from Switzerland in straight games 21-11, 21-12. Like PV Sindhu, Saina had also received first round bye.

B Sai Praneeth came from a game down to beat Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia 14-21, 21-18, 21-19 to enter the pre-quarterfinal which lasted for 1 hour 12 minutes.

Saina was in complete control of the match right from the start. The 12th seeded Indian comfortably took the first game 21-11. In the second game, Saina continued her dominance over her opponent to open up four point lead, but Sabrina fought back to narrow the gap to two points. Saina, though, brought her experience into play to swing the momentum of the match in her favour to close the match at 21-12.

In the men’s singles, Praneeth faced Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. The unseeded Indonesian won the first game 21-14, but the 15th seeded Indian fought back in the second game as he matched point by point to keep pace with his opponent and close the match at 21-18. The third game was once again a very tight affair as Praneeth raced to four point lead, but Ginting fought back to tie the game at 6 each.

The Indonesian came back strongly and was leading the final game 18-13, but Praneeth fought back to tie the game at 18-18 each. The Indian shuttler kept his nerve under pressure to win the final game 21- 19 and close the match. Praneeth will now face the winner between Marc Zwiebler of Germany and 6th seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.