Lucknow: Defending champion Saina Nehwal and World number five Kidambi Srikanth were among the nine Indian shuttlers who entered the quarterfinals of the singles events at the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here yesterday.


Kidambi Srikanth 

While Saina continued her march ahead, reaching the final eight with an easy win over Rituparna Das 21-15 21-9, top seed Srikanth edged out Malaysia's Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 22-20 20-22 21-11 in a men's singles match. Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who climbed the ranking chart to No.3 position, will next clash with 2011 National Games champion Arundhati Pantawane, who defeated Spain's Beatriz Corrales 22-20 22-20, while Srikanth faces off fifth seed Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia tonight.