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.
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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.
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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.