Saina Nehwal started India’s women’s singles campaign with a win over Aliye Demirbag of Turkey in the second round of the BWF World Championship 2018 at Nanjing in China. Saina, who has received a bye in the first round, beat Demirbag in straight games 21-17, 21-8 in 39 minutes on Day 2 of competetions.
Saina, ranked 10th in the world, will meet Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the third round. Intanon scored a hard fough 16-21, 22-20, 21-10 against Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark. A win against Intanon could pit Saina against Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain.
Former world number one Saina Nehwal edged past her Turkish opponent Aliye Demirbag in straight games to enter the second round of the ongoing Badminton World Championship here at Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Indian made an easy task of the Turkish player as he registered a 21-17, 21-8 victory in a one-sided opening-round match that lasted 34 minutes.
Taking the first serve, Nehwal looked a bit unsettled as her opponent took the initial lead in the opening game of the match.
Riding on the back of her experience, the Indian shuttler managed to get a lead of two points but she continued to make unforced errors on the court.
Subsequently, Demirbag smashed her way into the game by building a one-point lead, but soon Nehwal came from behind and collected some quick points to make it 17-14 in her favour.
Making no further mistake in the game, Saina won the first game 21-17 with the help of a strong body smash.
Right from the onset of the second game, both players played some attacking badminton with Nehwal using drop shots perfectly to her advantage.
The Indian shuttler was leading the second game by seven points and was in hurry to finish it off. A couple of smashes and a spectacular net fight by the Indian player helped her beat Demirbag 21-8 in a one-sided second game clash.
The Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu has also been given a bye in the first round. She will play her first match on Wednesday.
In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth outclassed unseeded Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in straight games to enter the second round on Tuesday. He won the match 21-15, 21-16 in 37 minutes.
India’s mixed doubles pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa staged fanstastic comeback in their second round match. They lost the opening game 10-21 but then won the next two games 21-17, 21-18 to take the match.
However, India’s top mixed doubles duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost to Indonesian combine of Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in their enconter.
In the men’s doubles, the pair of Arjun MR and Ramachandran Shlok suffered defeat in straight games against Malaysian One Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 14-21, 15-21 in 29 minutes. Tarun Kona and Saurabh Sharma also lost their men’s doubles match against Chin Chung and Chun Man Tang from Hong Kong 20-22, 21-18, 17-21.
Indians in action on Tuesday
Women’s Singles: Saina Nehwal beats Aliye Demirbag 21-17, 21-8
Men’s Singles – Kidambi Srikanth beats Nhat Nguyen 21-15, 21-16
Mixed Doubles: Pranaav Chopra/Sikki Reddy lose to Hafiz Fazal/Gloria Emannulle 16-21, 4-21
Men’s Doubles – Tarun Kona/Saurabh Sharma lose to Or Chin Chung/Tang Chun Man 20-22, 21-18, 17-21
Mixed Doubles: Rohan Kapoor/Kuhoo Garg lose to Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock 12-21, 12-21
Mixed Doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Ashwini Ponnappa beat Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich 10-21 21-17 21-18
Mixed Doubles: Saurabh Sharma/Anoushka Parikh v/s Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying
Women’s Doubles – Kuhoo Garg/Ningshi Hazarika v/s Chang Ching Hui/Yang Ching Tun
Men’s Doubles – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty v/s Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge
Men’s Doubles – Arjun MR/Shlok Ramchandran v/s Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi
Women’s Doubles – Meghana Jakkampudi/Poorvisha Ram v/s Debora Jille/Imke van der Aar
Men’s Doubles – Ashiwni Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy v/s Chiang Kia Hsin/Hung Shih Han
Men’s Singles – Sai Praneeth v/s Son Wan Ho
Prannoy, Sameer excel on Day 1
On Monday, the first day of competetions, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma scored straight-game victories as India made a resounding start.
World no 11 Prannoy started his campaign in style beating New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota 21-12 21-11, while Sameer dumped France’s Lucas Corvee 21-13 21-10 to progress to the second round.Prannoy, who had clinched a bronze medal at the Asia Badminton Championship this year, will face Brazil’s Ygor Coelho, while Swiss Open champion Sameer will have an uphill task of taming the legendary Lin Dan of China, a two-time Olympic gold medallist.
Indian mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, who had been in good form at the Commonwealth Games, prevailed 21-9 22-20 over Denmark’s Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen.
The world no 39 Indian combine will next face the German pairing of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich, seeded 15th.
Men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who had won the Lagos International recently, defeated Bulgarian pair Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev 21-13 21-18 to also make it to the second round.
Young Indian mixed doubles pairing of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh, and Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg, also pulled off impressive wins to advance to the second round.
Saurabh and Anoushka defeated Nigerian combo of Enejoh Abah and Peace Orji 21-13 21-12, while Rohan and Kuhoo, who had finished runners-up at the Russian Open, beat Canada’s Toby Ng and Rachel Honderich 21-19 21-6 in another mixed doubles match.
However, Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant went down fighting 20-22 14-21 to Turkey’s Bengisu Ercetin and Nazlican Inci in 34 minutes in the women’s doubles competition.
