HYDERABAD: Defending champion Saina Nehwal began her title defence with a 21-13, 21-8 win over world number 15 Sayaka Sato of Japan in the women’s singles first round match of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, according to reports reaching here on Wednesday.
However, promising PV Sindhu failed to clear the first hurdle when she lost to World number 21 Yao Jie of Netherlands 18-21, 21-18, 19-21 in a closely fought match which lasted 55 minutes. The mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta, who are seeded eighth here, went down tamely to the Japanese pair of Shoji Sato and Shizuka Matsuo 13-21, 15-21 in only 25 minutes.
For Saina, after her quarterfinal loss in the All England championship last week, it was a cake walk win. She was too good for her Japanese opponent. She jumped to a good 11-2 lead in the first game. There was semblance of a fightback by Sato when she narrowed the lead to 6-12. However, Saina, who is seeded third here, was well in control of the match she stormed to a first game win.
Sato began promisingly by taking a 4-2 lead. Saina had to fight hard and it was five-all. It was close till Saina took the lead at 7-5. Thereafter Saina stretched her lead and lost three more points before wrapping up the second game in 18 minutes. The Indian star meets Judith Meulendijks of Netherlands in the second round.
Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas warded off the challenge of Rudd Bosch and Koen Ridder of Netherlands, winning 21-18, 19-21, 24-22 in the men’s doubles first round match.
Jwala Gutta had a bad day in the office as she and Ashwini Ponnappa were knocked out in the women’s double event. The Indian pair won the first game at 21-16 but lost the next two at 18-21, 10-21 to the Japanese pair of Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Natto. National champion Sourabh Verma and top shuttlers, Ajay Jayaram and P Kashyap, won in the qualifying rounds. Sourabh showed his mettle when he notched up a 22-20, 20-22, 21-19 victory over Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, while Jayaram thrashed local shuttler Lukas Nussbaumer 21-9, 21-12 and Kashyap saw off Russia’s Stanislav Pukhov 21-9, 21-10 in just 22 minutes.
However, RMV Gurusaidutt and Arvind Bhat failed. Gurusaidutt lost 11-21, 24-26 to fourth seed Chinese Jin Chen, while experienced Arvind suffered a 21-10, 16-21, 14-21 defeat to Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine.