Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal cruised into the singles second round of the World Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sridhar got the better of Juergen Koch of Austria 21-15, 21-19 in 36 minutes in the men’s section while Saina beat Switzerland’s Jeanine Cicoginini 21-12, 21-12 in a women’s first-round match on Monday.
Sridhar, however, have a tough challenge ahead as he faces Olympic champion Taufiq Hidayat of Indonesia in the next round.
Saina will play the winner of the match between Juliane Schenk of Germany and Kristina Ludikova of the Czech Republic.
The top Indian doubles pair of Shruti S Kurian and Jwala P Gutta lost to the Swedish pair of Johanna Persson and Elin Bergblom by a 22-20, 15-21, 18-21 verdict. In other singles encounter, National champion Chetan Anand will take on ninth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in the first round on Tuesday. Trupti Murgunde will play Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong.
In men’s doubles, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas meet Svetoslav Stoyanov and Mihail Popov of France.
Easy for Hidayat
Hidayat cruised into the second round with a routine 21-13, 21-7 win over unseeded Spaniard Jose Antonio Crespo, adds Reuters.
Hidayat is seeking to regain the World title he last held in 2005, and his appearance on Monday morning was the highlight of an otherwise low-key start to the week-long tournament.
The Putra stadium was sparsely populated as Malaysians preferred to await the arrival of men's singles gold medal prospect Lee Chong Wei.
Several leading seeds have byes in the first round. Hidayat, seeded only eight, had at one time been a doubt for the championships as his wife awaited the birth of their child. If all goes to plan, Hidayat will meet world number one and defending champion Lin Dan of China in the quarterfinals. Lin and second seed Lee begin their campaigns on Wednesday.
In the women's singles, England's 16th seed Tracey Hallam held off local hope Li Ya Lydia Cheah 21-16, 19-21, 21-11, building on some excellent performances in the Sudirman Cup in Glasgow in June.
On Tuesday, Denmark stalwart Peter Gade, seeded five, takes on unseeded Andrew Smith of England. China's Chen Jin (3) and Chen Yu (6) also take the stage.
