India’s Saina Nehwal got the better of Jiayuan Chen of Singapore 21-16, 21-12 to enter into the second round of the women’s singles in the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold at Alor Setar on Wednesday.
Putting behind the disappointment of the shock first-round loss at last week’s India Open Super Series, Saina got off to a positive start when she comprehensively defeated her opponent.
Top seed Saina will now face Japan’s Ayane Kurihara in the second round.
She is now the only Indian left in the tournament as the rest of the six Indian men -- Parupalli Kashyap, Gurusai Datt, Ajay Jayaram, Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhat and Anand Pawar -- have all lost their matches.
Kashyap, seeded 12th, who defeated Malaysian Chong Chieh Lok 22-20, 21-7 in the first round, however, lost to Brice Leverdez of France 21-17, 15-21, 18-21.
Bhat outplayed Hong Kong’s Yun Lung Kuan 21-14, 21-19 before losing to Japan’s Sho Sasaki 21-13, 20-22, 15-21, while Sridhar, who beat eighth seed Malaysian Choong Hann Wong 21-15, 21-15, went down to Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro 18-21, 7-21 in the second round.
Guru Sai Dutt, who made it to the quarterfinals of the India Open Super Series, posed a tough fight to Beryno Jiann Tze Wong France before going down 21-19, 21-23, 18-21.
The third seed Tien Minh Nguyen 21-10, 7-21, 16-21 defeated India’s Anand Pawar and Ajay Jayram went down to ninth seed Hyun Il Lee of South Korea.
