Saina sails into quarterfinals of Malaysia Open

Officially crowned the world no. 1 in the BWF rankings, Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging run with a dominating straight-game win over Chinese qualifier Xue Yao to reach the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open Super Series premier badminton on Thursday. Saina, who was ensured of the world no. 1 during her exploits at the India Open triumph, defeated Yao 21-13 21-9 in a lop-sided 30-minute women's singles to set up a clash with another Chinese shuttler, Sun Yu, ranked 15th in the world. However, it was curtains for Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap and Indonesian Masters winner H S Prannoy in men's singles competition. Kashyap, who slipped to world number 17 today following a dip in performance due to a spate of injuries, suffered a 10-21 6-21 defeat to world no. 1 Chen Long of China.