Saina, Praneeth enter pre-quarterfinals at World Championship

The 27-year-old London Olympics bronze medallist hard broke a sweat as she cruised past her Swiss rival 21-11 21-12 in just 33 minutes at the Emirates Arena. It was second victory for Saina, who received a bye in the opening round, over Sabrina since the Indian had beaten her rival at the 2012 London Olympics as well.

Saina had won a silver medal in the previous edition of the World Championship in Jakarta while Sabrine is a winner of a bronze medal at European Championships this year.

Saina is likely to take on second seed Sung Ji Hyun. She has a 7-2 head-to-head record against the Korean and most recently beat her at the Australian Open.

Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth, who was playing on the adjacent court, survived a scare from 20-year-old Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.

World No. 19 Praneeth bounced back from a game down to outwit the World No. 26 Indonesian 14-21 21-18 21-19 in a men's singles match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes.

In the pre-quarterfinal, he will take on either Germany's Marc Zwiebler or Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen.