All England Championships: Saina sails into quarters

Saina Nehwal dispatched Pi Hongyan of France 21-10, 21-17 to advance to the women’s singles quarterfinals at the All England Badminton Championships.

Saina, world no. 4, beat Pi, number 23 in a little over half hour in the second round here Thursday. The Indian will meet either Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia or China’s Xuerui Li in the last eight stage.

The doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta, however, lost their second round match to the number two seeds Qing Tian and Yunlei Zhao of China 10-21, 15-21.