Saina Nehwal got the better of Jiayuan Chen of Singapore 21-16, 21-12 to enter the second round of the women's singles in the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold, at Alor Setar, on Wednesday.
The top seeded Indian put behind the disappointment of the shock first-round defeat at last week's India Open Super Series to set up a meeting with Japan's Ayane Kurihara in the second round.
She is the only Indian left in the tournament, as the rest of the six Indian men -- Parupalli Kashyap, Gurusai Datt, Ajay Jayaram, Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhat and Anand Pawar -- all lost their matches.
The 12th seeded Kashyap, who defeated Malaysia's Chong Chieh Lok 22-20, 21-7 in the first round, lost to Brice Leverdez of France 21-17, 15-21, 18-21 in the next.
Bhat outplayed Hong Kong's Yun Lung Kuan 21-14, 21-19 before losing to Japan's Sho Sasaki 21-13, 20-22, 15-21, while Sridhar, who beat eighth seed Malaysian Choong Hann Wong 21-15, 21-15, went down to Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro 18-21, 7-21 in the second round.
Guru Sai Dutt, who made it to the quarter-finals of the India Open Super Series, posed a tough fight to Beryno Jiann Tze Wong France before going down 21-19, 21-23, 18-21.
The third seed Tien Minh Nguyen 21-10, 7-21, 16-21 defeated India's Anand Pawar and Ajay Jayram went down to ninth seed Hyun Il Lee of South Korea.
© 2024 Rediff.com -