Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and K. Srikanth notched up comfortable victories over their respective opponents in the World badminton Championships here on Tuesday.
Saina, who won a silver and bronze in the earlier editions, defeated Turkey’s Aliye Demirbag 21-17, 21-8 in the second round to set up a pre-quarterfinal clash with 2013 champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand. The Olympic medallist from Indian had received a bye in the first round.
Fifth seed Srikanth dispatched Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-15, 21-16 in his campaign opener to join compatriots H.S. Prannoy, Sameer Verma and B. Sai Praneeth, who received a walkover after his opponent, Korea’s Son Wan Ho, pulled out in the second round.
Srikanth will face Spain’s Pablo Abian, while Praneeth will meet another Spaniard in Luis Enrique Penalver.
“It was a good first outing for me. My body feels good and that is all that matters to me. I am not thinking about anything else. The conditions are different. There is lot of drift here. So I took time to adjust,” said Srikanth after the match. “I will be better tomorrow when I play Pablo. It will be a tough match.” In other matches, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa defeated the 15th-seeded German pair of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich 10-21, 21-17, 21-18 win to enter the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals.
Satwiksairaj and Ashwini will face seventh seeds Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia.
Ashwini later paired up with N. Sikki Reddy to down the Chinese Taipei pair of Chiang Kai Hsin and Hung Shih Han 19-21, 21-10, 21-17 in the women’s doubles first round. Meanwhile, the Dutch duo of Debora Jille and Imke van der Aar put it across J. Meghana and Poorvisha Ram 21-15, 19-21, 21-18.
The results: Men (first round): B. Sai Praneeth w/o Son Wan Ho; K. Srikanth bt Nhat Nguyen (Irl) 21-15, 21-16.
Doubles (first round): Or Ching Chung & Tang Chun Man (HK) bt Tarun Kona & Saurabh Sharma 22-20, 18-21, 21-17; Ong Yew Sin & Teo Ee Yi (Mas) bt M.R. Arjun & Ramachandra Shlok 21-14, 21-15; R. Satwiksairaj & Chirag Shetty bt Marcus Ellis & Chris Langridge (Eng) 21-19, 12-21, 21-19.
Women’s singles (second round): Saina Nehwal bt Aliye Demirbag (Tur) 21-17, 21-8.
Doubles (first round): Chang Ching Hui & Yang Ching Tun (Tpe) bt Kuhoo Garg & Ningshi Hazarika 21-19, 21-11; Debora Jille & Imke van der Aar (Ned) bt J. Meghana & Poorvisha Ram 21-15, 19-21, 21-18; Ashwini Ponnappa & N. Sikki Reddy bt Chiang Kai Hsin & Hung Shih Han (Tpe) 19-21, 21-10, 21-17
Mixed doubles (second round): R. Satwiksairaj & Ashwini Ponnappa bt Mark Lamsfuss & Isabel Herttrich (Ger) 10-21, 21-17, 21-18; Chang Peng Soon & Goh Liu Ying (Mas) bt Saurabh Sharma & Anoushka Parikh 21-18, 21-11; Hafiz Faizal & Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (Ina) bt Pranaav Chopra & N. Sikki Reddy 21-16, 21-4; Chris Adcock & Gabrielle Adcock (Eng) bt Rohan Kapoor & Kuhoo Garg 21-12, 21-12.
