India's badminton star Saina Nehwal advanced to the women's quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold in Bangkok defeating Chinese Li Han 21-17, 21-13 Thursday. Sourabh Verma, Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth made the last eight stage in the men's category
World No 5 Saina took 42 minutes to get past the Chinese in the second round. She next plays Thailand’s Sapsiree Taerattanachai in a last-eight match today.
Taerattanachai came from behind to beat Kaori Imabeppu of Japan 20-22, 21-19, 21-15.
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Another Indian PV Sindhu suffered a 12-21, 23-25 at the hands of Wang Lin of China.
In the men’s singles, three Indians reached the quarterfinals. World No 42 Sourabh beat 28th-ranked Alamsyah Yunus of Indonesia 18-21, 21-13, 22-20 while Praneeth battled for a 13-21, 21-18, 22-20 win against Malaysia’s Choong Hann Wong.
Sameer defeated Teck Zhi Soo 21-18, 21-18, setting up a quarterfinal clash with Chinese qualifier Gao Huan.