Saina, Srikanth enter second round of Malaysia Open

April 01, 2015 05:09 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:11 pm IST - Kuala Lumpur

Saina Nehwal (left) Kidambi Srikanth

Saina Nehwal (left) Kidambi Srikanth

Newly-crowned India Open champions, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth continued their rampaging international run, notching up contrasting victories to enter the second round of the USD 500,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier, on Wednesday.

Set to be crowned the world no. 1 tomorrow, Saina hardly broke a sweat as she dumped Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia 21-13 21-16 in women’s singles after World No. 4 Srikanth edged out England’s Rajiv Ouseph 10-21 21-15 22-24 in men’s singles.

The Olympic bronze-medallist, Saina will next take on a Chinese qualifier Yao Xue even as Srikanth set up a clash with World No.16 Tian Houwei of China on Thursday.

Interestingly, Saina and Srikanth had clinched the China Open Super Series last year, before winning the India Super Series last Sunday.

Saina produced a dominating show in the first game not giving any chance to the Indonesian after opening a huge 12-4 lead early on. At 19-13, she grabbed two straight points to seal the first game.

In the second, Maria managed a 4-2 lead but that evaporated soon as Saina took control, leading 10-6. The Indonesian clawed back at 10-10 till 15-15, before the girl from Hyderabad zoomed ahead once again.

Srikanth had beaten Rajiv at the World Championship last year and he kept his record intact on Wednesday as he grabbed control of the match early on before breaking off at 7-7 in the first game.

He blasted 10 straight points to create a huge gulf which Rajiv could never breach as the Indian led 1-0.

Srikanth had the opportunity of sealing the match in the second game itself but he squandered a 6-0 early lead as Rajiv rode on a six-point burst at 13-12 to roar back into the contest.

The decider was a rollercoaster ride as Srikanth once again brought his never-say-die attitude to the fore, fighting back from 3-7 and 11-8 down to eventually edge out the England shuttler.

Srikanth has been on a roll since winning the China Open Super Series Premier last November. He reached the semifinals of the Hong Kong Open, World Super Series Finals, made it to the finals of Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold before winning the Swiss Open and India Super Series last month.

Saina too had been in red hot form, winning the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, reaching the All England final, before clinching the India Open in Delhi.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.