Saina, Sindhu win; Kashyap loses in Asia Championship

World No. 1 Saina Nehwal started her campaign with a hard-fought victory, while P V Sindhu eased through at the $200,000 Badminton Asia Championship.

It was, however, curtains for India's top men's shuttler, Parupalli Kashyap.

Olympic bronze-medallist Saina, who got a bye and walkover in the first two rounds, was off the blocks with a 21-14, 10-21, 21-10 win over Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in a women's singles match that lasted 67 minutes.

She will next take on fifth seed Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei.

Eighth seed Sindhu, a two-time bronze winner at the World Championships, set up a clash with top seed Li Xuerui of China in the quarter-finals after brushing aside Macau's Teng Iok U 21-8, 21-9 in another women's singles match at the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium.

However, Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, who had played a long match against Chinese Taipei's Jen Hao Hsu, could not maintain his winning run and his gallant fight ended with a 23-21, 17-21, 8-21 loss to seventh seed Zhengming Wang of China.

Among other Indians, the men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy B lost 10-21, 13-21 to third seeds Xiaolong Liu and Zihan Qiu of China.

The mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan also went down, 13-21, 5-21 to Kai Lu and Yaqiong Huang of China.

An All England finalist, Saina fought back from 3-5 and 4-6 in the first and third games to hand Okuhara her third defeat in as many encounters.

The girl from Hyderabad trailed initially, but soon opened up a 9-5 lead and even though Okuhara clawed back with a four-point burst, Saina was able to keep her nose ahead and grab the opening game.

Okuhara changed tactics in the second game and surged to 5-0 early on and then kept distancing herself from the Indian to roar back into the contest.

In the decider, Saina was back in her elements and after trailing 3-5, she drew parity to enter the break with a healthy 11-7 lead.

Okuhara tried to break Saina's game but the Indian stamped her authority, reeling off nine straight points to leave the Japanese stranded.

In the men's singles, Kashyap showed tremendous grit as he fought back from 0-5 down to grab an 11-8 lead at one stage and despite Wang clawing back at 12-12, kept breathing down his neck to eventually earn the early bragging rights.

However, Wang bounced back comfortably in the second game as he led 6-3 early on and then held a 11-9 advantage at the interval.

The Chinese blasted five points on the trot to create a gap which Kashyap couldn't bridge.

Once the match went into the decider, it was always difficult as the fatigue of playing a gruelling pre-quarter-final told on Kashyap's movement, allowing Wang to grab the advantage with both hands.