Ace Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal on Thursday came out with a spectacular performance, winning their respective second-round matches of the Malaysia Masters to enter the quarterfinals. However, it was curtains for the India men as both Sameer Verma and H S Prannoy crashed out of the tournament.
Saina, the London Olympics bronze medallist, defeated eighth-seed South Korea's An Se Young 25-23, 21-12 in a match that lasted 39 minutes.
In the first game, Saina was made to work hard by the 17-year-old as both the shuttlers kept going at each other. But, it was the Indian who ultimately won the game 25-23.
The Hyderabad shuttler, however, didn't have to sweat too much in the second game as she won comfortably by a 21-12 margin to enter the last eight. Saina will face Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain.
Sindhu easily got the better of Japan's Aya Ohori 21-10, 21-15 in just 34 minutes. After a one-sided first game, the Japanese showed some improvement but it wasn't enough to stop an experienced Sindhu in the next game.
On the other hand, Sameer went down in a hard-fought battle against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia. The Indian missed a quarterfinal berth narrowly as he suffered a 21-19, 22-20 loss in 52 minutes.
Prannoy, too, bowed out after going down 21-14, 21-16 to world No. 1 Japanese shuttler Kento Momota in 45 minutes.
