New Delhi: Title favourite Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinals as Indian shuttlers continued their winning run in the badminton individual events in the Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
Top seed Saina spanked Nigerian Caroline Black 21-0 21-2, while Aditi beat Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 21-11 21-17 in 24 minutes in women's singles.
Sixth seed P Kashyap kept his hopes of a maiden medal alive by beating Kieran Merrilees of Scotland 21-12 21-15, while third seed Chetan Anand thrashed Jamie Van Hooijdonk 21-8 21-2 in men's singles pre-quarterfinals here.
Jwala Gutta and V Diju beat fellow Indian pair of Rupesh Kumar and Ashwini Ponnappa 15-21 21-18 21-16 in a 25-minute battle but it was all over for Sanave Thomas and Aparna Balan as they lost 15-21 18-21 to Chris Adcock and Gabby White.
World number three Saina was too hot to handle for Caroline Black and the Northern Ireland shuttler failed to put up any fight against the Indian, going down 0-21 2-21 in the pre-quarterfinals match.
The pressure of playing the world number three got to Black as all her returns went either outside or to the nets as she drew a blank in the first game.
In the second game too, she could manage just two points, which was cheered aloud by the crowd.
"It was an easy match. She was very nervous. I can understand it is difficult to for her to play against me. I tried to play some rallies in the second game but she was hitting the shuttles out," Saina said after the match.
Aditi had a stroll in the park in the first game but in the second she looked edgy and the Pune girl admitted that she needs to be more consistent if she has to realise her dream of a medal here.
"I have not been attacking enough today. I need to be more aggressive and play more consistently. I lost concentration in between games but otherwise I played well," she said.
P Kashyap played an array of strokes and looked in good touch during his straight-game victory over Merrilees.
"I played fast and quick today. My flicks were coming good and I was relaxed," he said.
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