Saina, Sameer in last-8, Srikanth out

Barcelona, February 20

Saina Nehwal secured a straight-game win over Ukraine’s Maria Ulitina to storm into the women’s singles quarterfinals of the $170,000 Barcelona Spain Masters. Saina brushed aside Maria 21-10 21-19 in the second round to set up a last-8 clash with Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who has beaten the Indian twice in their last two encounters.

Sameer Verma also made it to the last-8 stage with a hard-fought 21-14 16-21 21-15 win over Germany’s Kai Schaefer. However, Kidambi Srikanth went down 6-21 17-21 to Ajay Jayaram, dashing his hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Games. Srikanth desperately needs to win a tournament or make it to the quarters and semifinals consistently to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

N Sikki Reddy lost both the mixed doubles and women’s doubles matches to bow out of the competition. Sikki and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 18-21 14-21 to Bulgaria’s Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva. In the mixed doubles, Sikki and Pranaav Jerry Chopra went down fighting 16-21 21-17 11-21 to the Malaysian pair of Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie. — PTI