Saina Nehwal
Lucknow: Two-time winner Saina Nehwal and defending champion Parupalli Kashyap made a positive start to their campaign at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament, reaching the pre-quarterfinals of the women's and men's singles competition respectively, here today.
London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina reached the second round with a 21-7 21-9 thrashing of Matilda Petersen of Sweden in just 28 minutes to set up a clash with Russian Natalia Perminova at Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here.
Saina was in complete control throughout the match and won seven points on the trot in both games to force her Swedish opponent into submission.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Kashyap, on the other hand, first notched up a 21-14 21-16 victory over compatriot Anup Sridhar and then registered a 21-10 21-12 win over Malaysia's Yee Han Chong in his second match of the day to reach the third round, where he will face 12th seed Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia.
Among others in men's singles, second seed Ajay Jayaram, third seed RMV Gurusaidutt, fourth seed Anand Pawar, sixth seed K Srikanth, seventh seed H S Prannoy, eighth seed Sourabh Verma, 11th seed Sai Praneeth B, 14th seed Arvind Bhat, 16th seed Subhankar Dey and young Aditya Prakash -- all reached the pre-quarters. 13th seed Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin also reached the third round.
In the men's singles, Jayaram streamrolled Vinay Kumar Reddy P 21-12 21-12 and then eked out a hard-fough 27-25 21-15 win over Malaysia's Teck Zhi Soo in the next match. He will take on Subhankar, who beat Abhimanyu Singh 18-21 21-12 21-19 and then notched up a difficult 21-14 9-21 21-9 win over Kaushal Dharmamer.
Guru had a good day in the court as he first defeated Velavan Vasudevan 21-10 21-10 and then sent packing Vipul Saini 21-11 21-11 in another match.
Sourabh too had an easy outing today as he beat Suraj Rayadurga 21-14 21-11 and then defeated Abhishek Yelegar 21-15 21-11 to reach the pre-quarters.
Pawar was up against Sourabh's brother Sameer but the fourth seed didn't have much difficulty getting across him 21-16 21-11. Pawar then mauled Ashish Sharma 21-7 21-8. He will meet Iskandar next.
Newly-crowned National champion Srikanth too had everything going his way today as he first defeated Mayank Behal 21-15 21-15 and then beat Malaysia's Kian Meng Tan 21-16 22-20. He will meet former national champion Arvind Bhat next.
After registering a 21-18 21-16 win over Ansal Yadav, Arvind notched up a 21-14 19-21 21-14 win over Joo Ven Soong of Malaysia.
Prannoy defeated Mohit Kamat 21-17 21-12 and then prevailed over Malaysia's Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub 21-16 19-21 21-9 in a hard-fought match. The young shuttler will take on compatriot Chetan Anand, a 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
Chetan beat Malaysia's Muhammad Adib Haiqal Nurizwan 21-9 21-11 and then spanked Srujan Nandaluri 21-9 21-7.
Sai Praneeth too didn't put a foot wrong today as he blew away qualifier Abhinav Prakash 21-7 21-4 and then spanked Saurav Kapoor 21-10 21-9.
Young Aditya too had a happy hunting as he first defeated Malaysia's Wei Jian Ai 21-15 21-13 and then won against Isreal's 10th seed Misha Zilberman who retired when the score was on 21-10 20-13.
In women's singles, Saili Rane and Dhanya Nair also reached the pre-quarters with straight-game victories. While Saili beat qualifier Sanchali Dasgupta 21-15 21-15, Dhanya defeated Delhi shuttler Rachita Sachdev 21-11 21-9 in another match.
( Source : PTI )
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