Fuzhou (China): Saina Nehwal sailed into the women’s singles second round of the China Open Super Series Premier with a 21-12, 21-13 win over USA’s Beiwan Zhang here Wednesday.
Saina, who recently won the National Championships beating compatriot PV Sindhu in the final, hardly broke a sweat in the 30-minute encounter.
In fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, who beat China’s Xiaoxin Chen 21-12, 21-14, Saina has drawn a tough opponent in the next round. The Indian trails the Japanese 1-3 in head-to-head record with their three previous results going in Yamaguchi’s favour.
However, it was curtains for Sourabh Verma in men’s singles, who lost in the first round to France’s Brice Leverdez 14-21, 21-15, 11-21.
The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also failed to cross the opening hurdle, losing to Chinese pair of Cheng Liu and Nan Zhang 13-21, 13-21.
In one of the most stunning results of the day, badminton legend Lin Dan saved seven match points before being dumped out of the first round of his home tournament, stunned by Indonesia’s World No.17 Jonatan Christie. The 19-21, 16-21 defeat of the Chinese will certainly ramp up speculation that the 34-year-old Lin, widely regarded as the best badminton player of all time, may soon call it quits as he approaches the end of his brilliant career.
Seeded third, Lin, a five-time China Open champion, was guilty of a catalogue of errors in going down to Christie in 42 minutes. The 20-year-old Christie plays Hong Kong’s Angus Ng in the second round.
“When we shook hands before the match I felt his hand was cold and I sensed he was nervous,” Christie, who lost to Lin in straight games at their last meeting in June, told the official BWF World Super Series website. “I realised that even though he was a past World and Olympic champion, he could get nervous too, so that made me confident. In the end it turned out to be one of the best days of my life.”
