Saina, Jwala-Diju in world badminton quarters

PARIS - India’s Saina Nehwal moved into the quarterfinals of the World badminton championships with a 21-14, 21-18 victory over Ella Diehl of Russia here Thursday.

In the mixed doubles, Jwala Gutta and V. Diju continued their fine run beating Singapore’s Chayut Triyachart and Lei Yao 14-21, 21-18, 21-14 for a place in the quarterfinal.

It was, however, end of the road for Jwala in the women’s doubles as she partnering Ashwini Ponnappa went down to Korean sixth seeds Jung Eun Ha and Min Jung Kim 14-21, 15-21 in the third round.

World No.2 and second-seeded Saina took 47 minutes to battle past the Russian. She will meet the winner of the match between Jie Yao of the Netherlands and Chinese Shixian Wang, seeded sixth.

In the first game, Saina opened up a 13-5 lead before the Russian fought back to take five points in a row. The Indian, however, consolidated her position reeling off five points before closing out the game.

In the second game, too, Saina made a headway start of 5-0, but the Russian came back strongly to level at 6-6. It was a close battle from there on as the two were again levelled at 18-18. Saina kept her nerves to pocket three points and the match.

The Indian mixed doubles team of Diju and Gutta, seeded ninth, had to fight back their way to the last eight stage.

The Indians, who were quarter-finalists last year, now face the 12th seeds, South Korea’s Ko Sung Hyun and Ha Jung Eun for a place in the semi-finals.

“I don’t think we were at the top of our game,” said Diju. “Too many mistakes and it’s only later that we managed to piece our game together.”

“I think a day’s gap made us complacent,” said Gutta. “But we will be ready for the Korean pair. We would do our best to clinch a semi-final spot at the World Championships.”

The Indians had only recently beaten the Korean pair in the Singapore Open Super Series.

In the women’s singles, Denmark’s Tine Baun had to stave off a fighting Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria to register a 21-19, 23-21 to move into the last eight.

In the men’s singles, unseeded Kazushi Yamada was the first to book a place in the last eight when he defeated Dicky Palyama of Netherlands 14-21, 21-19, 21-11.

The biggest casualty of the day was World No.1 Yihan Wang, who was shown the door by Japanese Eriko Hirose, seeded 10th, 20-22, 21-16, 21-18 in a thrilling match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.

Hirose will next meet another Chinese Lin Wang in the quarterfinals.