New Delhi, June 25 (IANS) World No. 8 Saina Nehwal battled past Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 18-21, 21-12, 21-18 to seal a quarter-final place at the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton at Johor Bahru Thursday.
The second-seeded Saina was pushed on to the backfoot when the unseeded Thai took the first game, before the Indian champion came back to draw level and win the tense decider.

Saina, who is looking to win back-to-back titles after claiming the Indonesia Super Series last week, is next up against Chinese qualifier Xin Wang who put out experienced campaigner sixth seed Ai Goto of Japan 21-14, 21-14.

Though Saina knocked out two top Chinese players in Jakarta last week, she would be wary of giant-killer Wang,

The 19-year-old Saina’s chances of a third Grand Prix title here after the Philippines Open and Chinese Taipei looked bleak Thursday as Ratchanok came close to upsetting her. Saina’s resilience in playing in going the full distance helped her overcome the Thai.

Saina was left to do the catch-up in the first game as Ratchanok stayed in front. The Thai eventually broke free at 17-all to surge ahead 20-18 before clinching the game.

Saina was in full control of the second game, racing to a 13-6 lead, and soon it was a game-all.

Ratchanok appeared to have saved her energy for the decider. She went 4-1 up before Saina took six points in a row. But Ratchanok again came back to stay close with the Indian. Just when the fight seemed to be getting intense, Saina crafted crucial points to gain double match-point and coolly closed it out without any hiccups.

However, the two surviving Indians in the men’s singles, Arvind Bhat and Ajay Jayaram, were beaten in the third round. Ninth seed Bhat went down to Chinese Long Chen 5-21, 11-21, while Jayaram lost to Yun Hu of Hong Kong 15-21, 14-21.

Top-seeded mixed doubles pair of Diju Valiyaveetil and Jwala Gutta moved into the quarterfinals with a 21-12, 21-12, victory over Malaysian Wee Tat Tan and Hui Ern Ng. They will next face Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Vita Marissa of Indonesia.

Jwala, however, lost her women’s doubles tie with Ashwini Ponnappa. The Indian pair went down fighting 25-23, 16-21, 12-21 to top seeds Eei Hui Chin and Pei Tty Wong of Malaysia in the second round.

The men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas also bowed out after losing to Malaysian Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan 13-21, 23-21, 19-21 in the second round.