Saina Nehwal cruises, Lin Dan shocked

New Delhi: Saina Nehwal entered the China Open women’s singles second round with a straight-game win over USA’s Zhang Beiwan in Fuzhou, China, on Wednesday.

Saina, who recently won the nationals beating P.V. Sindhu in the final, needed 30 minutes to tame Zhang 21-12, 21-13 in her tournament opener.

She will face fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, who beat China’s Chen Xiaoxin 21-12, 21-14, in the next round.

Saina trails the Japanese 1-3 in head-to-head record with their last three meetings going in Yamaguchi’s favour.

In men’s singles, Sourabh Verma lost in the first round to France’s Brice Leverdez 14-21, 21-15, 11-21.

In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also failed to cross the opening hurdle, losing to China’s Cheng Liu and Nan Zhang 13-21, 13-21.

Sindhu faces Sayaka Sato of Japan in her first round match while H.S. Prannoy meets Keun Dong Lee of South Korea in his opening singles encounter.

In mixed doubles, Rankiredddy and Ashwini Ponappa open their campaign against Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen.

In the men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy were drawn against top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the opening
round.

Meanwhile, Lin Dan saved seven match points before being dumped out of the first round, stunned by Indonesia’s world number 17 Jonatan Christie.

The 19-21, 16-21 defeat will 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.

Lin’s great rival, the Malaysian Lee Chong Wei, had no such trouble in a 21-5, 21-7 demolition of Taiwan’s Hsu Jen-hao.

Seeded third, Lin, a five-time China Open champion, was guilty of a catalogue of errors in going down to Christie in 42 minutes in a shock upset.

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 superseries website.

“I realised that even though he was a past world and Olympic champion, he could get nervous too, so that made me confident.”