Saina Nehwal clears first hurdle

Saina Nehwal cleared the first hurdle in the women's singles but compatriot Chetan Anand crashed of the All-England Open badminton championships after a first round defeat in Birmingham.

The women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien also made an early exit, losing 16-21, 21-7, 10-21 to the Indonesian duo of Vita Marissa and Greysia Polii in 33 minutes.

Saina overcame early jitters to get the better of Anita Raj Kaur of Malaysia 20-22, 21-15, 21-19 but the victory pit her against third seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong. The Hyderabadi shuttler will have to come up with something extraordinary to get past her formidable second round opponent.

Saina looked rusty in her match against Kaur and the Malaysian player did well to grab the opportunities that came her way and pocket the first game.

That served as a wake-up call for the Indian, who responded with alacrity. She was her aggressive self again and that paid off as she won the second game to draw parity.

The decider turned out to be a see-saw affair but Saina kept her cool and her superior movement and better net play saw her clinch the issue.

In the men's singles, Anand proved no match for third seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei, going down 12-21, 4-21.