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This Article is From Dec 17, 2009

Saina, Chetan in quarters

Lucknow: Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand advanced to the quarterfinals but Arvind Bhat crashed out after a stunning third-round defeat in the Syed Modi International Grand Prix badminton tournament on Thursday.

Top seed Saina crushed Chitralekha 21-9 21-7 to set up a clash with fifth seed Indonesian Fransiska Ratnasari, while Chetan struggled past Indonesian Adnan Fauzi 21-11 20-22 21-17.

The men's top seed will take on compatriot Anup Sridhar in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Sixth seeded Sridhar spanked Eshan Naqvi 21-14 21-11 in another match.

However, the biggest upset of the day was the shocking 21-15 19-21 14-21 defeat of Arvind at the hands of Malaysian Kwong Beng Chan in an hour long match.

In a match that had 111 rallies, Arvind squandered a first game lead and then found the going tough against the Malaysian, who held nerve at crucial junctures to emerge as victorious.

In the first game, the Malaysian opened up a 10-4 lead but a gutsy Arvind pocketed 14 points on the stretch to lead 18-10 before pocketing the game. But in the second game, the Indian committed some unforced errors to allow the Malaysian to take a 10-5 lead.

Arvind tried to come back and made it 19-20 before Chan wrapped it up to draw level.

In the decider, Chan again zoomed to a 10-3 lead and although Arvind tried to come back, making it 14-18, it was all over soon.

Among other Indians in fray, fourth seed P Kashyap struggled past German Dieter Domke 21-12 19-21 21-17 and eighth seed RMV Gurusaidatt pipped Ajay Jayaram 16-21 21-8 21-12 in 42 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.

Sai Praneet B also made it the final eight when Nikhil Kanetkar retired midway with the former leading 6-2.

In women's singles, Sikki Reddy beat third seed Maja Tvrdy 21-16 21-14, qualifier PV Sindhu beat compatriot Mohita Sahdev 21-12 21-14. Seventh seed Trupti Murgunde rallied to pip Japanese Hirayama Yu 17-21 21-18 23-21, while Aditi Mutatkar prevailed over fourth seed Neha Pandit 21-16 21-18.

However, it was all over for Dhanya Nair, who went down to second seed Indonesian Maria Febe Kusumastuti 21-12 21-6.

In the men's doubles, top seed Akdhay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal beat compatriots Davinder Dhillon and Hemant Duggal 21-4 21-18 and Sanave Thomas and V Diju defeated Venkat Gaurav and Manish Gupta 21-13 21-14 Second seed Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu got the better of Sai Praneet B and Pranav Chopra 18-21 21-11 21-18 to reach the quarterfinals.

Among the women, top seeds Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian also reached the quarters after beating Chitralekha and Parssa Naqvi 21-12 21-19 in the women's doubles category.

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