press trust of india
Kuala Lumpur, April 1: Newly-crowned India Open champions, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth continued their rampaging international run, notching up contrasting victories to enter the second round of the USD 5,00,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament, here Wednesday.
Saina hardly broke a sweat as she dumped Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia 21-13, 21-16 in women’s singles first round match after World No. 4 Srikanth edged out England’s Rajiv Ouseph 21-10, 15-21, 24-22 in the men’s singles.
Saina will next take on a Chinese qualifier Yao Xue even as Srikanth set up a clash Thursday with World No.16 Tian Houwei of China.
Saina produced a dominating show in the first game not giving any chance to Maria after opening a huge 12-4 lead early on. At 19-13, she grabbed two straight points to seal the first game.
In the second, Maria managed a 4-2 lead but that evaporated soon as Saina took control, leading 10-6. The Indonesian clawed back at 10-10 and 15-15, before the girl from Hyderabad zoomed ahead once again to close out the match.
Srikanth had beaten Rajiv at the World Championships last year and he kept his record intact as he grabbed control of the match early on before breaking off at 7-7 in the first game and reeled of 10 points. Rajeev could never breach the gap and lost the game tamely.
Srikanth had the opportunity of sealing the match in the second game itself but he squandered a 6-0 early lead as Rajiv rode on a six-point burst at 13-12 to roar back into the contest.
The decider was a rollercoaster ride as Srikanth once again brought his never-say-die attitude to the fore, fighting back from 3-7 and 8-11 down to eventually edge out the England shuttler.
Meanwhile in late evening matches, Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy also advanced to the second round of men’s singles. Kashyap got the better of South Korean Lee Dong Keun 21-15, 11-21, 21-14 in 71 minutes while defeated Ireland’s Scott Evans 22-20, 21-18 in 40 minutes.
The Indian women’s doubles combo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa prevailed over Indonesians Devi Tika Permatasari and Keshya Nurvita Hanadia 21-14, 18-21, 21-16 in a hard-fought 48 minutes battle.
