Sindhu stuns defending champ, Kashyap, Saina too enter QFs of Badminton Worlds

It was a redletter day for Indian badminton with three shuttlers storming into the quarterfinals at the World Badminton Championships just one step away from clinching a medal in the tourney While it was expected that Saina Nehwal would beat her opponent India39s rising badminton stars Parupalli Kashyap and PV Sindhu too secured quarterfinal berths after beating highlyfancied opponents PV Sindhu caused the biggest upset of the tournament so far by knocking out defending champion and second seed Yihan Wang of China to advance to the women39s singles quarterfinals here on Thursday P V Sindhu has caused the biggest upset of the Badminton Worlds so far by knocking out defending champion Yihan Wang of China File Pic The 10th seeded Sindhu who got a bye in the first round defeated London Olympics silver medallist in 55 minutes at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium Sindhu took the match 2118 2321 after some titanic rallies in the third game which left Wang looking exhausted The 18yearold had last faced and lost to Wang in the Sudirman Cup in May in their only other meeting Sindhu who had lost to Yihan in their only encounter previously at the Sudirman Cup in May fought hard in the first game The Indian managed to take a 129 lead before Yihan levelled at 16all Thereon Sindhu used her height to her advantage by dropping the shuttle regularly at the net enabling her to take the game The 18yearold raced to a 137 lead in the second game But the defending champion wasn39t going to give in easily and recovered to make it 1719 Sindhu clinched the next point to have three matchpoints in her kitty But the 25yearold Chinese found legs to not just knock off the three points but also reach game point 2120 However the Hyderabadi clawed back by first levelling and then taking the next two points to bag the match in straight games She next faces another Chinese test in the quarters where seventh seed Shixian Wang will be waiting for her The young Indian now runs into world number eight Shixian Wang of Chinau00a0 Earlier Sindhursquos citymate Saina Nehwal rallied from a game down to beat Thailandrsquos Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and entered the quarterfinals London Olympics bronze medallist Saina who had reached the quarterfinals of previous editions in 2009 2010 and 2011 beat 15th seed Buranaprasertsuk 1821 2116 2114 in a clash which lasted 52 minutes Saina Nehwal came from a game down to beat 15th seedu00a0Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in the prequarterfinal File Pic With this win Saina seeded third in the event also kept her allwin record against Buranaprasertsuk intact having beaten her in their five previous encounters before Thursday Sainarsquos most recent win against Buranaprasertsuk came last year during the Thailand Open Buranaprasertsuk started off strongly today and surprised the Indian with better command over smash winners sending down 11 of them in the first game But Saina regained her composure pretty quickly and roared back in the second game with nine of her trademark smash winners She kept up the pressure in the deciding game as well to emerge triumphant after the initial scare Saina looked out of sorts in the first game making several errors Her Thai opponent capitalised and closed the gap from 47 to 8all and was at Saina39s heels till 18all The 21yearold Thai clinched the next three points to win her first game against the Indian since 2008 The 23yearold Indian bounced back in the second game by taking a 154 advantage in no time Though the Thai tried coming back 1016 but Saina was in her elements and sealed the game with the help of nine smashes Despite the game getting tight at the end the Hyderabadi held her nerves to level the match Unlike the first game Saina made sure she kept the lead throughout the decider Aided by some brilliant cross court slices from the third court Saina increased her lead 115 After the change of sides Porntip found legs and notched up a few points with some downtheline smashes bringing down Saina39s lead to 1413 The aggressive Thai made some errors too giving the initiative to Saina who then extended the lead to 1713 The Indian made a minor error before securing the next four points to seal the tie Saina will next play South Korea39s 13th seed Yeon Ju Bae against whom the Indian has a 52 record Parupalli Kashyap39s quarterfinal berth is his best outing in the tourney File Picu00a0 In another prequarterfinal 13th seed Parupalli Kashyap advanced in the men39s singles beating Hong Kong39s sixth seed Yun Hu 2113 2116 in 37 minutes This is Kashyap39s best outing at the event and also the 26yearold39s first victory over the Hong Kong shuttler in three meetings Kashyap hit 16 clear winners as compared to just nine by his opponent from Hong Kong Yun Hu completely failed to live up to the expectations and was far from his best today Hu looking totally offcolour let the Indian dominate throughout the match Kashyap took an upper hand by opening up a 147 lead in the first game itself before wrapping it up 2113 The second game also saw Hu suffering a similar fate as Kashyap once again made it 147 But Hu pocketed four consecutive points to reduce the gap to 1114 and then levelled 1515 before running out steam to hand Kashyap a comfortable victory in the end Kashyap will meet world number three Pengyu Du in the last eight stage Prequarterfinal results Men39s singles Kashyap Parupalli x13 IND bt Hu Yun x6 HKG 2113 2116 Women39s singlesu00a0PV Sindhu x10 IND bt Wang Yihan x2 CHN 2118 2321u00a0Sainha Newhal x3 IND bt Porntip Buranaprasertsuk x15 THA 1821 2116 2114 u00a0