On paper, the draw offers Saina Nehwal a chance to sneak up behind her rival challengers and pick her second Super Series title this year after Indonesia. Seeded fourth at the Danish Open in Odense, Nehwal reached the quarter-finals on Thursday with a 21-15 21-14 win over local girl Camilla Sorensen.

Youngster RMV Guru Sai Dutt continued his giant-killing streak, claiming Danish world No 11 and third seed, Joachim Persson, 21-17 12-21 19-21. The 19-year-old Indian rallied from a set down to clinch his second big upset win, outwitting his experienced rival at the net. The Indian qualifier next meets Indonesian fifth seed Simon Santoso.

Nehwal, though, is looking at a draw that has top-seed Yihan Wang — the only Chinese here — and Danish Tine Rassmussen as two formidable, but not unbeatable opponents. Except, there’s an old Japanese nemesis — Eriko Hirose — waiting in the quarters on Friday before the Indian world No 9 can head into the weekend of title contention.

The 31-minute pre-quarters encounter on Thursday saw Nehwal draw out her big weapon — the smash — to speed up the proceedings and clinch the straight games win. However, the Japanese, ranked 41 in the world, poses a different challenge to Nehwal, who she beat at the Indian Open in 2008 using change of pace and tactics while neutralising the Indian’s big power. History apart, Hirose has shown fine form at Denmark, upsetting German fifth seed Julianne Schenk, and is known to be a player with scant regard for reputations.

... contd.