Saina moves into second round in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, Nov 21 (IANS) London Olympics badminton bronze medallist Saina Nehwal made short work of Aprilla Yuswandari of Indonesia to move into the women’s singles second round of the $250,000 Hong Kong Open Super Series here Wednesday.

In men’s singles, Ajay Jayaram and London Olympics quarter−finalist Parupalli Kashyap also won their respective ties to advance to the next round of the final Super Series tournament of the calendar.

Seeded third, Saina won 22−20, 21−8 in 33 minutes at the Hong Kong Coliseum to clinch a third career victory in as many matches over the World No.34 Indonesian.

In the first game, it was a neck−and−neck fight between the two Asians. Saina reached game point with Aprillia at 17. But the Indonesian saved all three of them, levelling the game at 20−all.

But the World No.3 Indian was quick to take the next two points and wrap the game.

Saina proved too good for Aprillia in the second game as she raced away to a 19−6 lead, winning 10 straight points. The 22−year−old took just one match−point to seal the deal.

In her next match, Saina faces Lin Wang of China, who has a 3−2 head−to−head record against the World No.3.

In men’s action, Mumbai’s Jayaram won a thrilling encounter to upset World No.17 Zhengming Wang of China 22−20, 23−21 in 35 minutes. He booked a date with World No.1 and top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who has an impeccable 4−0 head−to−head against the Indian.

In another match, Kashyap caused another upset overcoming seventh seeded Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 24−22, 20−22, 22−20 in a marathon match that lasted one hour and eight minutes. The Hyderabadi levelled the head−to−head against the Danish 1−1.

In mixed doubles action, Pranaav Chopra and N. Siki Reddy beat American duo of Phillip Chew and Jamie Subandhi 21−19, 21−15 to move into the second round.

However, the list of losers was longer for India as P.V. Sindhu (women’s singles), Tarun Kona/Arun Vishnu (men’s doubles) and Tarun Kona/Ashwini Ponnappa, Akshay Dewalkar/Pradnya Gadre and Arun Vishnu/Aparna Balan went out of the tournament on the first day of action.

IANS 2012-11-21 17:23:04