Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth enter quarterfinal of Malaysia Masters Badminton tournament

Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth produced yet another fine display to progress to the quarterfinal of the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Saina, seeded seventh, took 39 minutes to tame Hong Kong's Pui Yin Yip 21-14 21-16 in her second round women's singles encounter. The London Olympics bronze medallist will play second seed and 2017 world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the last-eight stage of the first Super 500 tournament of the year on Friday. World no. 9 Saina holds an 8-4 overall head-to-head record against Okuhara, which includes back-to-back wins over the current world no.2 in the last two tournaments -- last year's Demark Open and the French Open. If Saina manages to go past Okuhara, the Indian might run into fourth seed Carolina Marin, who is placed in her half of the draw.

Saina got off to a solid start, taking a strong 11-3 lead against Yin at mid-break in the first game. Continuing with the momentum, Saina finished the first game 21-14. In the second game, Yin showed some resilience but still trailed 7-11. In the second half, Saina gave her Hong Kong opponent very few chances and wrapped up the game 21-16 in her favour.

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In men's singles, Srikanth continued his unbeaten run with a hard-fought 23-21 8-21 21-18 win over Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent to set up a fight with fourth seeded Korean Son Wan Ho. The seventh seeded Indian, who had a title-less run last season, has a 4-5 head-to-head count against the Korean world no 5. Former Commonwealth Games champion Parapulli Kashyap, however, bowed out of the tournament after his fight ended with a 17-21 23-25 loss to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.     

Srikanth had a tough outing against Vincent with the match lasting an hour and four minutes. In the first game, Vincent and Srikanth took the game to the tie breaker. But Srikanth held his nerves, finishing the game 23-21. The second game was a one-sided affair as Vincent registered a 21-8 win in the second game taking the match into the decider. In the final game, both the players displayed superb on-court play with Srikanth taking a slender 11-8 lead at mid-break. The World No.8 then held on to his lead and eventually won the game 21-18

Women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also suffered an 18-21 17-21 loss to Indonesian combination of Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istarani and Rizki Amelia Pradipta.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Saina Nehwal has an 8-4 head-to-head record against Okuhara
• Saina could face Carolina Marin in the next round
• Kidambi Srikanth could face Son Wan Ho in next round