New Delhi: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal started off her Indian Open Super Series on a sweet note as she beat World number 19 Yip Pui Yin of Honkong at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here on Wednesday.
After crashing out of the Asian Badminton Championships last week ay Quingdao, the World number 5 showed a ruthless form to take out Yin 21-14, 21-6 in a match that lasted for 29 minutes. She has now cruised into the pre-quarters of the Women’s draw and would square off against Korea's Youn Joo Bae in her next match.
Saina faced some resistance from Pui early on at a point it was only it was three points that separated them. Locked at 8-5, Saina picked up three consecutive points to make it 11-5 and thereafter it was no stopping her as she paced off to the victory.
The second was rather too easy for the Indian as her opponent started to feel the heat and made some silly mistakes. From 11-6, Saina won 10 consecutive points to seal the fate of the match.
"She played well in the first set, she made silly errors, but it's good to beat someone from the top 20," Saina said after the match.
“After the Asian Games, I beat her again here. I think I have beaten her third or fourth time. She played well and I was defending most of the time. But I was confident with my smashes and I used them sparingly. There was pressure before the match but I played well today and settled down very quickly,” added Saina.
Meanwhile the, mixed-doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju lost to the Chinese pair of Tao Jiaming and Xia Huan 21-18, 21-19.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News Network
