Saina Nehwal, who had reached the final of the Denmark Open last week, continued her good run by beating former world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 10-21, 21-14, 21-17 in an exciting contest
Paris: India’s Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal entered the quarter-finals of the $ 750,000 French Open BWF World Tour Super 750 here on Thursday.
Defending champion Srikanth defeated Korea's world no 25 Lee Dong Keun 12-21, 21-16, 21-18 in a second round clash in an hour and 13 minutes. The Indian had lost twice to the 27-year-old Korean in the past two meetings.
Saina, who had reached the final of the Denmark Open last week, continued her good run by beating former world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 10-21, 21-14, 21-17 in another exciting contest. The Indian had beaten Okuhara last week as well.
Now, both Srikanth and Saina will have a tough task as they face world champion Kento Momota of Japan and world no 1 ranked Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei respectively on Friday.
Saina too has been no match for Tzu Ying, who defeated her in the final last week in Odense. The Taiwanese has an overwhelming 13-5 record against Saina, who has lost the last 11 times she faced her.
World no 6 Srikanth will have to bring all his experience to the fore as Momota has outclassed the Indian four times this season. Momota enjoys a 9-3 lead over Srikanth in the head-to-head count.
(With inputs from PTI)
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