Saina Nehwal weathered a late challenge from World No.39 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand to enter the second round of the Malaysian Open GP Gold.
Saina Nehwal, fresh from her Indonesia Open Super Series win last week, weathered a late challenge from World No.39 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand to enter the second round of the Malaysian Open GP Gold with a 21-18 22-20 result here on Wednesday.
In the mixed doubles, Diju and Jwala recorded a remarkable win, over Malaysia’s Fairuz Tazari and Wong Pei Tty in three games to progress into the second round. Although the Malaysians are ranked only World No.80, they are excellent doubles players, with Tazari ranked No.8 in men’s doubles, while Wong Pei Tty is actually World No.1 in the women’s!
The other Indians, except for Arvind Bhat and Ajay Jayaram, fell early. Chetan Anand lost a tough three-setter to Malaysia’s Iskandar, who in turn ran into Ajay Jayaram in the second round. Ajay beat him 21-13 24-22 to enter the third round.
National champion Arvind Bhat continued his good record against Danish players, with a three-set win over Sune Gavnholt, and then recorded another three-set victory over Singapore’s Ashton Chen. But all the Indian interest was on Saina, and the World No.8 was tested by the Thai junior international. Porntip took an 11-7 lead in the first, but Saina equalled at 13, and jumped into lead after 16-all. In the second game it was Saina who set an early lead, but mid-way through the Thai caught up and it was a close-call until the end, when Saina’s experience showed through and she took the match.
Parupalli Kashyap got past Kozai of Japan in the first round but was beaten in straight games by Chun Seang Tan of Malaysia in the second.
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