Saina in last 8, Kashyap loses

Macau, Dec. 1: Top seed Saina Nehwal rallied to register another narrow victory over Indonesia’s Dinar Dyah Ayustine to reach the quarterfinals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Thursday.

Former World No.1 Saina bounced back from a game down to see off Ayustine 1721, 21-18, 21-12 in a women’s singles match that lasted over an hour.

Saina will next take on China’s Zhang Yiman.

However, it was curtains for P. Kashyap and the men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy.

Kashyap, who is on a comeback trail, put up a gallant fight before losing 13-21, 20-22 to Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei in a 45-minute duel.

Third seeds Manu and Sumeeth also fought hard before going down 20-22, 19-21 to Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Hendra Wijaya.

In the women’s singles match, Saina blew a 11-7 lead in the opening game to see Ayustine move ahead and pocket the game. However, a determined Saina dished out a more dominating performance in the second game as she zoomed to a 11-3 lead at the break.

Ayustine slowly and steadily bridged the gap after interval and drew parity at 18-18 but the Indian ensured there was no hiccup as she bounced back into the contest.

In the decider, it was the Indonesian shuttler who held a slender 4-2 lead early on but Saina turned the tables at 5-5 and moved ahead, opening up a 11-8 lead at the interval.

Saina then reeled off four points to extend the lead and eventually sealed the match with another four-point burst.

The men’s doubles pair of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri too lost their match in straight games.