All England Championship: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal storm into pre-quarterfinals

Birmingham: Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy have advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.

In women's singles, 2015 finalist Saina Nehwal registered a comfortable 21-15, 21-14 win against defending champion Nozumi Okuhara in 38 minutes, while sixth seed Sindhu eased past Danish Mette Poulsen with a 21-10, 21-11 victory in just 29 minutes.

After her victory, Saina took to Twitter to post a picture of herself with a smiley.

In men's singles, HS Prannoy defeated China's Qiao Bin 17-21, 22-20, 21-19 in an hour and 22 minutes, however, India's top-ranked men's singles player Ajay Jayaram bowed out in the first round after losing 19-21, 13-21 to lower-ranked Huang Yuxiang.

Kidambi Srikanth also exited the tournament after suffering a shocking 19-21, 21-19, 12-21 loss against Chinese qualifier Zhao Junpeng.

In the men's doubles category, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost to qualifying pair of Peter Briggs and Tom Wolfenden of England 19-21, 21-10, 18-21.

The women's doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram also lost to Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching and Wu Ti Jung 19-21, 12-21.