Basel : Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal set up a quarterfinal clash with world number three and top seed Chinese Yihan Wang, while Commonwealth Games bronze winner Parupalli Kashyap, too, entered the last eight in the $125,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold tournament here. The 23 year old from Hyderabad registered an easy 21-7, 21-13 win over Sashina Vignes Waran of France in the pre quarterfinals that lasted 34 minutes in the women's singles competition.
Kashyap, on the other hand, had to toil hard before prevailing over Malaysia’s Beryno Jiann Tze Wong 21-23, 21-9, 21-14 in a men’s singles match at St Jakobshalle. Saina, snatched the opening game, moving to 6-1 and then 13-2, before closing it with three straight points from 18-7. In the second game, the sixth seeded Indian was chased by the World number 42 French from 3-8 to 11-12, but Saina reeled off six points at 15-13 to seal her place in the quarterfinals. World No. 25 Kashyap, had to dig deep in his reserves in the opening game.
In the second game, the 27 year old made a roaring comeback in the contest. In the decider, Wong made early strides and led 10-5, but Kashyap clawed back at 11-11 and then zoomed ahead from 14-13 to 20-13 Kashyap’s next opponent is world number 22 Tien whom he beat at the Macau Open in 2011.
