Saina makes rollicking start at World Championship, enters 3rd round

Posted In : Sports
(added 11 Aug 2011)

India's Saina Nehwal advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships after thumping Chloe Magee of Ireland in straight games to make a resounding start to her campaign in the women's singles event of the prestigious tournament here today.

Saina makes rollicking start at World Championship, enters 3rd round

World number six Saina proved too good for the Irish who suffered a humiliating 10-21 7-21 loss in a 26-minute second round contest here. Saina will meet 14th seed Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong in the next round. Pui beat Li Michelle of Canada 23-21 17-21 21-17.

Ajay Jayaram also reached the pre-quarterfinals with a straight-games victory over Russian Vladimir Ivanov in men's singles competition. The World number 35 beat Vladimir 21-19 21-17 in 34 minutes to set up a clash with sixth seed Jin Chen of China in the third round.

P Kashyap played his heart out but squandered as many as five match points to go down 22-24 21-17 20-22 to world number seven Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam in the second round. V Diju also made a successful return to the court as he along with partner Jwala Gutta thrashed Jien Guo Ong and Sook Chin Chong of Malaysia 21-11 21-15 in a 29-minute mixed doubles match at the Wembley arena.

In women's doubles, Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa stunned Chinese Taipei's Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien 21-18 21-18 to reach the pre-quarters. The Commonwealth Games good medallist pair will take on 11th seeds Lok Yan Poon and Ying Suet Tse of Hong Kong in the third round. Earlier, the 21-year-old Saina was at her aggressive best as she digged in her repertoire and played varied strokes to completely bamboozle her opponent.

(added 11 Aug 2011) / 808 views

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