Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap made it to the last eight at the All England Badminton Championship. Not only did Parupalli Kashyap get hold of his career-best World No 9 ranking on Thursday, he also justified his rise from the 11th position with a superb straight games victory to enter the All England quarterfinal for the first time. Kashyap upset seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan 21-18 21-12 late on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal, the best seed in contention for the women’s singles title, also made it to the last eight. She did overcome the Indonesian challenge thrown by Belaetrix Manuputi 21-16 21-11 in the pre-quarters. She is now scheduled to face Shixian Wang of China.
The 26-year-old Kashyap reacted after the match that he had taken time to adjust to the conditions. “I was a little shaky in the first round. I was not getting my rhythm. The shuttles were fast, so I was trying to get adjusted to them. Against Tago, I was more confident with the conditions. My smashes were coming good. I had scored most of my points through smashes. I could control the shuttle better than Tago,” he said.
Kashyap will now be pitted against the Chinese second seed Chen Long in the quarterfinal.
Meanwhile, Saina has given herself the best chance to win her maiden All England title.
With the ouster of China’s World Nos 1 and 2, Li Xuerui and Yihan Wang in the first round, she is now the best seeded player still in the competition. Should she win against Wang, she could run into fourth-seeded German Juliane Schenk in the semifinal.
The current world number three Saina got back at everything thrown at her and engaged her rival into long rallies to finally remain 23-21 19-21 21-16 over Shixian in an hour and 14 minutes match to equal her exploits at the 2010 edition of the $400,000 Super series event.
The Hyderabadi will now be playing against the winner between fourth seed German Juliane Schenk and eight seed Thai Ratchanok Intanon on Saturday.
However, world number nine Parupalli Kashyap's quest to move further up was cut short by second seed Chen Long as the Chinese notched up a 21-16 21-10 win in the men's singles competition.
In the women's singles match, the 22-year-old Hyderabad girl opened up a 7-3 lead and went into the breather with a slim chance at 11-10 advantage in the first game. After the break, Saina and Shixian engaged in a tooth and nail battle to move to 16-16.
Shixian soon moved to 19-16 but Saina caught her at the left side of the court and also forced the Chinese to commit errors to draw parity. Saina maintained top positions at the nets to reach 21-20 and a bodyline smash and a deceiving drop helped her to lead 1-0.
In the concluding game, Shixian rushed to a 6-1 lead quickly but Saina covered the ground to make it 8-8. However, the Chinese reeled off five straight points to go into the breather at 11-8.
