Saina Nehwal came from a game down to beat Eriko Hirose and enter the women's singles quarterfinals at Singapore Open Superseries badminton event here Thursday.
Saina, who slipped to number four in world rankings released Thursday, had to dig deep against the Japanese before earning a 16-21, 21-16, 21-9 win. The contest lasted a little over one hour.
With Thursday's success, Saina levelled her head-to-head record with the World No.11 to 3-3. She plays Indonesia's Lindaweni Fanetri in the last eight stage Friday.
B. Sai Praneeth, however, lost to 12th-ranked Chong Wei Feng 11-21, 21-17, 16-21 in the pre-quarterfinals. The World No.45 had upset second seed Yun Hu of Hong Kong Wednesday.
The mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan went down against Praveen Jordan and Vita Marissa of Indonesia 10-21, 18-21.
Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Jerry Chopra were shown the door by Chinese Taipei's Yoo Seon Yong and Shin Baek Choel 14-21, 19-21.
