World Championship: Saina Nehwal Made A Great Start

World Championship: Saina Nehwal made a great start, and reached the pre-quarterfinal match.

London Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal made a stellar start to her campaign at the BWF World Badminton Championships by registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi here on Tuesday.

Saina defeated Ngan Yi 21-19, 21-9 in 38 minutes in the first-round match.

The 32-year-old, who won silver and bronze at the World Championships, has advanced to the pre-quarterfinals.

As her second-round rival, Nazomi Okuhara withdrew from the tournament due to an injury, this gave Saina a ‘bye’.

Indian women’s doubles pair of Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also started their campaign with a win.

The Indian pair didn’t have much trouble beating Malaysia’s Yen Yuan Lo and Valerie Seo 21-11 21-13.

However, the mixed doubles pair of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Devgan suffered a defeat. The Indian pair lost 10-21, 21-23 to Gregory Myers and Jenny Moore of England.

BWF World Championships: Commonwealth Games gold medalist Lakshya starts with victory, Praneeth loses

Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen continued his stellar run with a straight-game win over Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Wittingas in the BWF World Championships men’s singles opening match here on Monday.

Indian players also registered victories in women’s doubles and mixed doubles, while veteran B Sai Praneeth lost in a three-game hard-fought match against world ranking number four Cho Tien.

The 20-year-old Sen, who won a bronze medal on his debut at the tournament in Spain last year, won his opening match 21-12, 21-11.

World Championship (2019) bronze medalist Praneeth lost 15-21, 21-15, 15-21 against the Chinese Taipei player.

Praneeth had a disappointing second year in a row in Tokyo. He was also initially ruled out during the Olympic Games last year.