Saina, Jayaram, Gurusaidutt enter quarters in Indonesia

Defending champion Saina Nehwal, R M V Gurusaidutt and Ajay Jayaram today advanced to the quarterfinals of the Indonesian Super Series Premier after winning their respective matches, here today.

However, it was curtains for Sai Praneeth in the men's singles as he went down fighting against World No.1 Lee Chong Wei in the pre-quarters.

Saina registered a comfortable straight-game victory over Sayaka Takahashi of Japan while Gurusaidutt fought hard for his win over Kazumasa Sakai of Japan.

Jayaram caused one of the biggest upsets of the day when he defeated Indonesian fourth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro 22-20 21-12. The Mumbaikar will take on Marc Zwiebler of Germany against whom the World No.25 has a 1-1 head-to-head.

World number two Saina took 39 minutes to outplay her 24th ranked opponent 21-13 21-19 in a women's singles second round match at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

The 23-year-old from Hyderabad will take on Carolina Marin of Spain in the quarters. Saina, seeded second, relied on her smashes and superior net play to steer clear of her Japanese rival.

The two started on equal footing and were tied till 6-6 before Saina surged ahead to open up a gap of six points.

The Japanese managed to clinch a few straight points to reduce the gap to 13-14 at one stage, but the Indian showed her class and easily wrapped up the first game 21-13.

Takahashi got her act together in the second game as two rivals got engaged in a fierce battle. Tied at 12-12, the Japanese won three points on the trot to make it 15-12 and then succeeded in maintaining a slender lead over Saina.

But the higher ranked Indian battled on and turned the tables at 18-18 and eventually roared back into the contest. After an intense fight, Saina finally won the game and the match 21-19.

Gurusaidutt prevailed 21-12 9-21 21-19 over Sakai in a contest that lasted a little less than an hour. After a comfortable 12-21 win in the opening game, Gurusaidutt was completely outplayed by his opponent in the second game.

The deciding game was a see-saw battle and the scores were tied at 17-17 before the Indian upped the ante in time to advance to the next stage. Gurusaidutt will meet Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in the last-eight stage.

Praneeth, who had achieved his biggest career victory in the first round by defeating former Olympic and World Champion Taufik Hidayat, went out in straight games against Malaysian top seed Chong Wei 18-21 12-21 in 37 minutes.

In another men's singles match, Sourabh Varma was thrashed by the third seed Pengyu Du of China 16-21 6-21 in 37 minutes.

India's campaign ended in both mixed doubles and women's doubles categories.
While the women's double pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre lost 13-21 19-21 to local combo Anneke Feinya Agustin and Della Destiara Haris in little over half an hour, Ponnappa along with her mixed doubles partner Tarun Kona were handed a 14-21 21-17 13-21 defeat by Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba of Poland in 42 minutes.