Saina Nehwal emerged as the lone Indian survivor in the season-opener Malaysian Super series, staving off the challenge from Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei as Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand fell by the wayside.

Eighteen-year-old Saina rode on her smashes and good net play to survive the scary onslaught waged by Chen in an edge-of-the-seat second-round clash to reach the quarter-finals. The world No 10 won 21-16, 19-21, 21-19 in 48 minutes.

“It was a very tough match. I really had to stretch a lot. She has a very good defence and a good backhand as well. The first game was easy but after that she was excellent, she was picking up all the shots and the third game was really close,” Saina said.

In the quarter-final, Saina will face Hongyan Pi of France, whom she had defeated in the round-robin league of World Super Series Masters Finals here last month. “I have defeated Pi here last month, so I don’t have to do anything different,” Saina said.

Sridhar played his heart out but failed to get past Indonesian world number four Sony Dwi Kuncoro and went down 12-21, 18-21 in 34-minutes. Anand was no match for world No 5 Peter Gade of Denmark, who won 21-7, 21-8 in just 20 minutes.

There was more disappointment in the mixed doubles match, as the Indian pairing of V Diju and Jwala Gutta was sent packing 21-18, 21-14 by local pair Kien Keat Koo and Hui Lin Ng in the second round.