Saina, Kashyap, Praneeth reach pre-quarters at Macau Open

TIL Desk Sports/ Top seed Saina Nehwal staved off a tough challenge from little-known Indonesian Hanna Ramadini in a three-game women’s singles opening round match to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here today.

It turned out to be a good day for Indians as Saina, P Kashyap and B Sai Praneeth and men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Summeth Reddy made it to the pre-quarterfinals even as it was curtains for Hong Kong Super Series finalist Sameer Verma at the USD 120,000 event.

Former World No. 1 Saina saw off World No. 44 Ramadini 21-23 21-14 21-18 in the opening match that lasted for over an hour. She will next take on another Indonesian Dinar Dyah Ayustine next.

On a comeback trail, Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap, who recovered from multiple injuries and then took a break after the Denmark Open to work on his fitness and game, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Chen 21-19 21-8. He will take on Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Hsien in the next round.