Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal [ Images ] continued her dream run and reached the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix [ Images ] Gold badminton tournament after a gruelling victory over Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Thursday.

The second seeded Indian lost the first game but staged spirited fightback to outlast the Indonesian 18-21, 21-12, 21-18 in a 46-minute clash.

She will meet Chinese qualifier Xin Wang on Friday. Xin thumped sixth seed Japanese Ai Goto 21-14, 21-14 in another pre-quarter-final.

Intanon was better at the net and scored through smashes as she took the first game. But the No 8-ranked Indian switched to aggressive mode in the next game and raced to a 9-6 lead before pocketing it comfortably.

The decider turned out to be a perfect pot-boiler as fortunes fluctuated. Saina raced to 10-5 but the Thai soon reeled off four straight points to claw back and reduce the gap to 10-9. However, the Indian stayed cool as the lead kept changing hands before breaking away at 18 to seal the issue.

However, it was curtains for Arvind Bhat [ Images ] and Ajay Jayaram in the men's singles.

Ninth seed Arvind was thrashed by Chinese Long Chen 5-21, 11-21 in just 27 minutes, while Ajay went down to Yun Hu of Hong Kong 15-21, 14-21 in less than 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, India's [ Images ] mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta [ Images ] brushed aside the Malaysian duo of Wee tat Tan and Hui Ern Ng, winning 21-12, 21-12 to move into the quarter-finals where they meet the Indonesian pair of Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Vita Marissa on Friday.

The men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar [ Images ] and Sanave Thomas [ Images ] won their first round match against the sixth seeded Chinese pair of Zhiben Chen and Ye Shen 14-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 53 minutes.

They will next face the Malaysian pair of Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan.