Saina edges past Lu

The world number four took 56 minutes to see off Lan 21-18, 13-21, 21-16 in the first round of the women’s singles. Saina will now take on Chinese Taipei’s Shao Chieh Cheng in the second round on Thursday.

Compatriot P Kashyap, however, suffered defeat in the opening round, going down in straight games to world number eight Sung Hwan Park in the men’s singles. The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist lost 15-21, 14-21 to the Korean in  44 minutes.

CWG gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also failed to cross the first hurdle and was sent packing by Korean combo of Kyung Eun Jung and Ha Na Kim 17-21, 14-21 in just 26 minutes in the women’s doubles.

It was also curtains for Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas, who lost 17-21 16-21 to Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan in the men’s doubles. Young qualifier Arundhati Pantawane also suffered defeat in the first round of the main draw, going down to Chinese Taipei’s Tzu Ying Tai 16-21, 13-21 in another women’s singles match.

Saina, who had beaten Lan in the first round of Thailand Grand Prix Gold last week, took little time to wrap up the first game after breaking off at 10-10.