4.25 pm: Some thoughts from Abhijeet Kulkarni as wrap up this live blog — “It sometimes feels that Tai Tzu Ying fools around and gives some easy points away to make things slightly interesting for herself. The errors are soon followed by high quality winners. Saina tried her best to capitalise on them but ends up losing 21-15, 21-19.”

K Srikanth vs Kento Momota is at 2230 IST tonight, do join us around then for the updates on that match.

GAME OVER, Tai Tzu Ying wins 21-15 21-19 in 27 minutes: The match was 19-19 in the 2nd game when started typing the previous update in the blog, and by the time we could finish it, Tai Tzu Ying hit two brilliant smashes to take the game and match! Tai Tzu Ying wins 21-15 21-19.

The World No. 1 is on course for an All-England hat-trick. For Saina Nehwal, another day when she found the World No 1 too good to handle. 13th defeat on the trot!

Second game: Good leave, Saina! It’s not always been her strong suit but Saina Nehwal judges it to perfection to make it 19-19.

Second game, Tzu Ying 21-15 19-18 Nehwal: Saina Nehwal hasn’t done much wrong, but in the blink of an eye, Tai Tzu Ying has gone into a 19-16 lead in the second game. Saina then pulls back a couple of points with solid rallies.

Second game, Tzu Ying 21-15 17-15 Nehwal: What can you do when Tai Tzu Ying can play those flicks from the net. Just watch and applaud. Its 13-13 in the second game now. That is followed by a delicious drop from Saina too, showing she is more than capable of producing jaw-dropping moments. TTY then one-ups her. WE are just running out ways to say WOW. She is into the lead now.

Second game, Tzu Ying 21-15 11-13 Nehwal: WHAT A POINT! This game has been one of short, sharp rallies so far but that one was just mesmerizing from both players. Saina lost steam at the end of 36 shots though. She still leads 13-11.

Abhijeet Kulkarni: Saina has managed to take a 11-8 lead in the mid game interval of the second game as Tai Tzu ended up making a lot of errors. But can Saina continue this way?

Second game, Tzu Ying 21-15 8-11 Nehwal: Despite a series of good winners from Tai Tzu Ying, Saina has a three-point lead in the mid-game interval. Can she force a decider?

Second game, Tzu Ying 21-15 6-9 Nehwal: Saina takes a 8-3 lead and that is followed by a wonderful rally that goes to Tai Tzy Ying. Saina breaks serve again to take a 9-4 lead. Good stuff from the Indian! And the point after that TTY just plays the most insane drop shot, converting defence to offence (so to speak) in no time and all Saina can do is smile!

Second game, Tzu Ying 21-15 3-6 Nehwal: Good start for Saina Nehwal in the second game, leads 5-3 after the opening exchanges. The pep talk from P Kashyap between the games was quite animated. We couldn’t quite make out what he was saying but it might be doing the trick for Saina here. TTY loses a challenge and Saina has a 3-point lead.

Abhijeet Kulkarni: The two points to make it 19-12 showed the class of Tai Tzu Ying. First was a service, toss return and a cross court half smash. The next: service, slightly deep toss return and a round the head drop to finish the points. 21-15 1st game

First game, Tzu Ying 21-15 Nehwal: Eight game points for the World No 1 and Saina Nehwal saves three of them! But the net chord doesn’t come to her rescue at the last minute, and Tai Tzu Ying draws first blood. Takes the opening game 21-15.

First game, Tzu Ying 20-12 Nehwal: “She is motoring along now,” says the commentator of TTY. She is following up smashes with unplayable drop shots and there is not much Saina can do about it. Eight game points for the World No 1.

First game, Tzu Ying 18-12 Nehwal: Saina Nehwal is finding her groove after the break, she has put together a good run of points to make it 12-15 and then TTY plays the most sublime drop shot. That is followed by an error from Saina. The lead is back to six points with a an incredible smash from TTY.

First game, Tzu Ying 14-10 Nehwal: Judgement error from TTY this time and she pays for the indecision but netting the shuttle. The World No 1’s lead is down to 4.

First game, Tzu Ying 14-8 Nehwal: A booming down-the-line smash from Saina and the crowd responds with a few cheers. She’s narrowed the score down to 7-13 as TTY sends a lift long. There have been a couple of service faults from Saina though, frustratingly, to make matters worse for her.

First game, Tzu Ying 11-3 Nehwal: Geez, Tai Tzu Ying is in the zone already! Not much you can do if she is playing that well.

First game, Tzu Ying 7-3 Nehwal: Not surprisingly, TTY wants to keep the rallies short. Already some GENIUS drop shots on display, coupled with errors from Saina.

First game, Tzu Ying 4-2 Nehwal: Tai Tzu Ying starts off well, but the first long rally of the match is won by Saina with a delicious drop shot. Tai leads 4-2 at this point.

Abhijeet Kulkarni weighs in: Saina has reached the quarterfinals of this prestigious tournament nine times but has advanced beyond this round only thrice. If she has to improve on that record, Saina would have to beat Tai Tzu Ying, a player she has lost to 12 times in a row since 2015

3.35 pm: As the commentator mentions, one aspect that might go in favour of Saina today is the fact that this is only the 2nd tournament Tai is playing this year, while Saina has been in good rhythm from the start of 2019.

And the head-to-head, just how dominant has Tai been!

3.32 pm: The players are out on the court in Birmingham. Not far away from Saina vs TTY.

03.15 pm: Hello all and welcome to the live blog of the All England Open quarter-final between the former World No 1 and the current World No 1. Saina Nehwal takes on Tai Tzu Ying.

Nehwal has now lost 12 straight matches to Tai since 2015. The Indian has struggled to tackle the guile and deception of her 24-year-old opponent who can play an array of strokes ranging from the flicks, sharp cross drops, down the line smashes and even the late net dribbles.

Day two was a story of two contrasting wins for India’s last two remaining shuttlers in Birmingham.

While Saina rallied her way to a 8-21 21-16 21-13 win over Denmark’s Line Hjmark Kjaersfeldt in a 51-minute contest, seventh seed K Srikanth recovered from a mid-game slump to register a 21-17 11-21 21-12 win over Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie, his first victory over the Indonesian in the last three meetings.

Eighth seeded Saina now takes on her nemesis and two-time champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who also happens to be the defending champion here.