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Saina has it easy on Day One
Top seed Saina Nehwal romped to an easy 21-7, 21-10 win over Sri Lanka’s Thilini Jayasinghe in the first round of the India Open Grand Prix in Chennai on Wednesday, reports Anupma Tripathi.
Top seed Saina Nehwal romped to an easy 21-7, 21-10 win over Sri Lanka’s Thilini Jayasinghe in the first round of the India Open Grand Prix here on Wednesday.
“Thilini played well,” said Saina. “I am not happy with the way I played but this is only the first round, there is still a lot to come.” She will take on India’s Dhanya Nair on Thursday.
Jayasinghe, ranked No. 1 in Sri Lanka, when asked about the match, said, “I had a bad draw. Had it been any other player, I would have beaten her. One can’t expect much when you are up against world No. 6 in the first round itself,” said the Sri Lankan.
Day of upsets
Five seeded entries crashed out of the tournament. In men’s singles, Anup Sridhar lost to Yunus Alamsyah of Malaysia 12-21, 8-2. In women’s singles third seed, Aditi Mutatkar went down fighting to Indonesia’s Linda Weni Fanetri 14-21, 21-18, 11-21.
Mutatkar lasted for 53 minutes before succumbing to the Indonesian. “I played well,” said Mutatkar after the match. “I will have to work on my strokes and add variety to my play.”
Slovenia’s fourth seed Maja Tvrdy lost to India’s P.C Thulasi 21-17, 9-21, 10-21. In another casualty, Singapore’s Fu Mingtian fell to Indonesia’s Aprilia Yuswandari 13-21, 20-22.
Seventh seed Trupti Murugunde went down to Singapore’s Gu Juan.
Chetan wins
World’s No. 19 and top seed, Chetan Anand, registered a convincing win over Mohit Kamat in the second round. “I am happy that I finished the game quickly,” said Anand.
Talking about Sridhar’s loss to Alamsyah, the top seed said that the Indian should have taken his chances. “Anup should have finished off with points instead of playing the parallel game,” he said.
