All England Badminton Championship | Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth advance to quarter-finals; B Sai Praneeth bows out

After a dominating display in the first round, Nehwal started off on a bad note against Line Kjaersfedlt by going down 8-21 in the first game. But the Indian shuttler came back in style in the next two games to win the round 8-21, 21-16, 21-13. The 28-year-old Indian also looked out of place at the beginning of the second game and at the mid-game break, she was trailing by 9-11 points. However, she recovered soon after that and won two consecutive games to qualify for the quarters where she will face World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying.

In the men’s singles category, Srikanth got the better of Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 21-17, 11-21, 21-12 inside one hour. The 26-year-old Andhra shuttler dominated the entire first game and at the mid-game break, he had a healthy lead of 11-7. However, after winning the first by 21-17 points, Srikanth lost the second game to the Asian Games gold medallist as the latter won it by a huge margin of 21-11 points. Srikanth then made a stunning comeback and won the decider comfortably by 21-12 points. The Indian shuttler will now face Kento Momota of Japan in the quarter-final clash.

Sai Praneeth was the only disappointment for the Indian badminton fans on Thursday as he lost his second match against Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in straight games 21-12, 21-17. Praneeth had a lead of 10-8 at one stage in the first game but lost his way completely from there and could get only two points after that in the first game while the second one looked more competitive but went again in favour of the Hong Kong shuttler and Praneeth had to bow out of the championship.