New Delhi, Jun 10 (IANS): India's Saina Nehwal defeated Japanese Mitani Minatsu 21-13, 15-21, 21-7 to move into the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold in Bangkok Thursday.World number 4 Saina beat the unseeded Japanese in 46-minutes and will now meet seventh seeded Xuerui Li for a place in the semifinal Friday.

In the men's singles, Parupalli Kashyap and promising Sourabh Verma also moved into the quarterfinals.

Kashyap, seeded 14th, scored a fighting 21-16, 19-21, 21-12 victory over Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif of Malaysia.

Kashyap will now face top seeded Long Chen of China.

Sourabh, who burst onto the international scene with an outstanding performance at the Indian Open Super Series in April, pulled out another fine victory, going past Beng Hong Kuan of Malaysia 21-19, 23-25, 21-14 in a tough duel.

The Madhya Pradesh boy will play third seeded Korean Sung Hwan Park in the quarterfinals.

The doubles combination of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, however, lost 21-23,
13-21 to Hong Kong's Lok Yan Poon and Ying Suet Tse in the first round.

Also eliminated in the first round were men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas, who went down 8-21, 14-21 to fifth seeded Chinese Biao Chai and Zhendong Guo.