World number six Saina Nehwal shrugged off second-game blues to oust Russian Anastasia Prokopenko 21-10, 21-17 and set up a last 16 clash with Bulgarian world number 10 Petya Nedelcheva, who waged a grim battle to overcome Singapore’s Aiying Xing 26-24, 19-21, 21-16.
Chetan Anand’s match too went along similar lines against Bulgarian Stilian Makarski.
After winning the first game with little fuss, the Indian failed to maintain the same tight leash, but was still good enough to emerge a 21-9, 21-17 victor.
But it was another Hyderabad boy Parupalli Kashyap who stole the show with his lion-hearted show against Chinese Chen Jin. Though Kashyap lost the match, he was not at all disgraced in his 21-14, 10-21, 7-21 defeat.
Walking out to a rapturous welcome, Saina made a breezing start, sending down a series of overhead smashes and cross-court winners. Playing her first competitive match after recovering from a bout of chicken pox, the local lass showed little sign of fatigue as she moved swiftly around the court. Saina finished off the opening game in a jiffy, a jump smash sealing the issue for her.
She ran up a 5-0 lead in the second and appeared in a great hurry to wrap up proceedings. Anastasia, however, made a quick recovery and didn’t allow the home favourite to run away with the match. Struggling to cope with the extra drift after the change-over, Saina engaged her rival in long rallies that worked well for her. After going neck and neck till 14-14, Saina broke away and clinched the game at 21-17 when Anastasia’s smash fell wide. “I didn’t feel tired, but I am going to be tested in tomorrow’s match,” said Saina. The 20-year-old admitted that because it was her first match after recovering from chicken pox, it did play on her mind before she took the court. “But luckily, it wasn’t a major problem,” she added.
Chetan was equally impressive in his triumph over Makarski. Employing the same strategy that won him his first-round match, the 27-year-old began by attacking his opponent. Exhibiting an all-round game, the world number 15 pocketed the first game 21-9. The Bulgarian put up greater resistance in the second, running his fancied rival close till the scoreline read 17-17. After that, the Indian reeled off three points in a row to round off a fruitful day for the hosts.
“I am not happy with my performance in the second game. The first game was good, but the drift affected me in the second,” said Chetan after the match. Chetan has a tough opponent to deal with in the next round in Indonesian world number six Sony Dwi Kuncoro. The duo has a 1-1 hea-to-head record, Chetan having beaten him in their previous match at the Danish Open.
Second-round results
Results (prefix denotes seeding):
Men’s singles: 1-Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt Ola Fagbemi (Ngr) 21-11, 21-14; 2-Chen Jin (Chn) bt Parupalli Kashyap (Ind) 14-21, 21-10, 21-7; 3-Peter Gade (Den) bt Sho Sasaki (Jpn) 21-11, 21-12; 4-Taufik Hidayat (Ina) bt Mathieu Lo Ying Ping (Fra) 21-17, 21-15; 5-Lin Dan (Chn) bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (Tha) 21-16, 21-12; 6-Sony Dwi Kuncoro (Ina) bt Przemyslaw Wacha (Pol) 21-12, 21-13; Jan O Jorgensen (Den) bt Park Sung Hwan (Kor) 21-16, 17-21, 21-15; 9-Yu Hsing Hsieh (Tpe) bt Ng Wei (Hkg) 24-22, 20-22, 21-18; 10-Yan Kit Chan (Hkg) bt Scott Evans (Irl) 21-16, 19-21, 21-12; 12- Choong Hann Wong (Mas) bt Raul Must (Est) 21-12, 7-21, 21-16; 13-Simon Santoso (Ina) bt Zi Liang Derek Wong (Sin) 21-13, 19-21, 21-16; 14-Tien Minh Nguyen (Vie) bt Brice Leverdez (Fra) 21-14, 21-16; 15-Chetan Anand (Ind) bt Stilian Makarski (Bul) 21-9, 21-17; 16-Boonsak Ponsana (Tha)bt Joe Wu (Nzl) 21-16, 21-6.
Women's singles: 1-Zhou Mi (Hkg) bt Michelle Chan Ky (Nzl) 21-11, 21-15; 2-Wang Lin (Chn) bt Yu Hirayama (Jpn) 21-13, 21-12; 4-Wang Yihan Wang (Chn) bt Susan Egelstaff (Sco) 21-13, 21-16; 5-Xie Xingfang (Chn) bt Zechiri Linda (Bul) 23-21, 18-10 retd; 6-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt Anastasia Prokopenko (Rus) 21-10, 21-17; 8-Pi Hongyan (FRA) bt Shih Han Hung (Tpe) 21-13, 21-12; 9-Wang Chen (Hkg) bt Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (Tha) 13-21, 21-15, 21-16; 10-Petya Nedelcheva (Bul) bt Aiying Xing (Sin) 26-24, 19-21, 21-6; Ai Goto (Jpn) bt 14-Mew Choo Wong (Mas) 18-21, 21-12, 23-21; Salakjit Ponsana (Tha) bt 16-Judith Meulendijks (Ned) 11-21, 21-16, 21-11.
Men's doubles: Sang Hoon Han/ Baek Choel Shin (Kor) bt 3-Lars Paaske/ Jonas Rasmussen (Den) 21-19, 15-21, 21-17; 4-Jae Sung Jung/ Yong Dae Lee (Kor) bt Adrian Liu/ Derrick Ng (Can) 21-8, 21-12; 5-Yun Cai/ Haifeng Fu (Chn) bt Hendri Kruniawan Saputra/ Hendra Wijaya (Sin) 21-12, 21-16; 6-Mathias Boe/ Carsten Mogensen (Den) w/o Juergen Koch/ Peter Zauner (Aut); 10-Michal Logosz/ Robert Mateusiak (Pol) bt William Milroy/ Toby Ng (Can) 21-14, 21-14; 11-Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki/ Rian Sukmawan (Ina) bt Valeriy Atrashchenkov/ Georgiy Natarov (Ukr) 21-14, 21-14; 16-Vitalij Durkin/ Alexandr Nikolaenko (Rus) bt Akshay Dewalkar/ Jishnu Sanyal (Ind) 17-21, 21-13, 21-18.
Women's doubles: 1-Eei Hui Chin/ Pei Tty Wong (Mas) bt Emelie Lenna-rtsson/ Emma W (Swe) 21-13, 21-11; 2-Cheng Shu/ Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Shruti Kurian/ Aparna Balan (Ind) 21-16, 21-16; 3-Hyo Jung Lee/ Kyung Won Lee (Kor) bt Sook Chin Chong/ Khe Wei Woon (Mas) 21-12, 21-11; 5-Jing Du/ Yang Yu (Chn) bt Steffi Annys/Severine C (Bel) 21-5, 21-6.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks