Saina starts winning ,storms into pre-quarters

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal hardly showed any fatigue from a recent bout of chickenpox as she stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of World Badminton Championships with a straight-game victory over Russian Anastasia Prokopenko here today.

The 20-year-old, who was laid low by chicken pox just a few days before the championship, outplayed her rival 21-10 21-17 in 27 minutes in the women's singles second round.

The local favourite faces Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva tomorrow.

Among other Indians, men's doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal squandered a position of strength to go down 21-17 13-21 18-21 against 16th seed Vitalij Durkin and Alexandr Nikolaenko of Russia in 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, top seed Mi Zhou of Hong Kong beat Kiwi Michelle Chan Ky 21-11 21-15, while men's number one seed Chong Wei Lee beat Ola Fagbemi of Nigeria 21-11 21-14.

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