London: India's Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa stormed into the semifinal of the World Badminton championships here on Friday but India's best hope Saina Nehwal bowed out in the quarters.
The Jwala-Ashwini duo upset Indonesian Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati 17-21, 21-10, 21-17 in the women's doubles; however, Saina couldn't break her quarterfinal jinx in the women's singles, losing to Xin Wang of China 15-21, 10-21.
Saina, seeded sixth, went down to the third seed in 30 minutes. In the previous two editons also, Saina made a quarterfinal exit. With Saina's loss, India's challenge in the singles competition came to an end.
But the unseeded pair of Jwala and Ashwini, the gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games, kept Indian interest alive.
Continuing their giant-killing act, Jwala and Ashwini beat the Indonesian pair in 47 minutes. They lost the first game, but fought their way back to clinch the match.
Jwala and Ashwini shocked second seeded Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien in the second round to register their career's biggest upset win. In the third round, they went on to beat Hong Kong's Lok Yan Poon and Ying Suet Tse, seeded 11th.
They will next meet China's Qing Tian and Yunlei Zhao, seeded fifth, who made short work of Japan's Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa 21-16, 21-10.
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