Saina marches on

World number four Saina, who turned 21 on Thursday, shrugged off the initial rust to notch up a 23-21, 21-9 victory over Sashina in her campaign opener in the women’s singles on Wednesday night.

The second seed Indian will now clash with Eriko, who had spoilt her campaign in the All England Championships last week with a straight-game defeat in the quarterfinals in Birmingham. Eriko, meanwhile, beat Judith Meulendijks of the Netherlands in the first round of the Swiss Open.

In the men’s singles, Ajay Jayaram will take on 16th seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark in the third round after notching up a hard-fought 22-20, 22-20 win over Yuhan Tan of Belgium in the second round.

Anand Pawar, however, lost to fifth seed Wan Ho Shon of Korea 21-17, 15-21, 18-21. India’s number one P Kashyap had become a first round casualty after losing 21-10, 19-21, 19-21 to Sven Eric Kastens of Germany on the opening day.

Commonwealth Games gold medallists pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will take on seventh seeds Japanese combo of Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito in the second round after beating Germany duo of Johanna Goliszewski and Carla Nelte 21-15, 21-13.
However, Jwala and V Diju could not conjure the same magic and lost to eighth-seeded Korean pair of Yong Dae Lee and Jung Eun Ha 14-21, 9-21 in the second round.