Macau: Saina Nehwal has qualified for the second round of the prestigious Macau Open, after defeating Hanna Ramadini in three games, on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old shuttler has been struggling with a knee injury of late – something that has impeded with her performances this year.
However, Saina hardly showed any signs of the injury, as she came out victorious against Ramadini, defeating the Indonesian 21-23, 21-14, 21-18.
Both the players matched each other shot-for-shot in the first game, but Ramadini managed to take the early lead. However, Saina bounced back from that point, clinching the second and the third games, respectively.
Saina had suffered from a knee problem in recent times, and went under the knife, earlier this year. Although she has recovered from her surgery, she her recent results clearly show that she is yet to get back to full match-fitness. She also failed to make the cut for the World Super Series finals.
She got knocked out in the first round of the China Open, before putting together a quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Open.
Earlier in the day, Indian men’s singles shuttler P Kashyap also made it to the second round of the tournament in his respective category, defeating hinese Taipei's Chun-Wei Chen in two games.
However, it was curtains for P Kashyap and men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy.
Kashyap, who is on a comeback trail, put up a gallant fight before losing 13-21 20-22 to Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei in a 45-minute duel.
Third seeds Manu and Sumeeth also fought hard before going down 20-22, 19-21 to Singapore's Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Hendra Wijaya.
