Saina beats Yamaguchi after 4 years, in quarters

Odense (Denmark), October 18

Saina Nehwal defeated world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan for the first time in four years to enter the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open.

Saina registered an easy 21-15 21-17 win over second-seeded Yamaguchi in the pre-quarterfinal match that lasted just 36 minutes. The 28-year-old will take on world No. 3 Nozomi Okuhara, also from Japan, in the quarterfinals. This was Saina’s second career win over Yamaguchi, who has won six times in the head-to-head encounters. Saina’s first win against Yamaguchi came in 2014 during the China Open. Since then, Yamaguchi has enjoyed an upper hand against the Indian. The earlier two meetings this year — the Uber Cup in May and Malaysia Open in June — also went in Yamaguchi’s favour. Saina trailed 0-4 in the first game before levelling the scores at 10-10. Saina showed tremendous resolve and reeled off five straight points to take a 15-10 lead and then widened it to 19-12. Yamaguchi recovered a bit but Saina grabbed five game points at 20-15 and then easily pocketed the first game.

In the second game, Saina zoomed to a 7-2 lead but Yamaguchi caught her up at 11-11. After that, it was a close tussle between the two as they were locked 17-17. Saina clinched four points on the trot to win the second game and the match. — PTI 

Ponnappa-Reddy win 

Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy beat defending champions and world No. 7 Lee So Hey/Shin Seung Chan of South Korea 18-21 22-20 21-18 to storm into doubles quarterfinals.