Saina enters second round of Swiss Open

India ace shuttler Saina Nehwal started her title defense on a positive note, thrashing Japan's Sayaka Sato in straight-games in the first round of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold at Basel, Switzerland.

National champion Sourabh Verma and top shuttlers, Ajay Jayaram and P Kashyap, also reached the second round after notching up contrasting wins in the opening round.

The world number four Saina beat Sayaka 21-13, 21-8 in a 33-minute women's singles match.

Sourabh showed his mettle when he notched up a 22-20, 20-22, 21-19 victory over Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, while Jayaram thrashed local shuttler Lukas Nussbaumer 21-9, 21-12 and Kashyap saw off Russia's Stanislav Pukhov 21-9, 21-10 in just 22 minutes late last night.

However, RMV Gurusaidutt and Arvind Bhat failed to cross the first hurdle.

Gurusaidutt lost 11-21, 24-26 to fourth seed Chinese Jin Chen, while experienced Arvind suffered a 21-10, 16-21, 14-21 defeat to Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine.

India's top mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju, seeded eighth, also became first round casualty after losing to Japanese duo of Shoji Sato and Shizuka Matsuo 13-21, 15-21 in a 25-minute match.