Lucknow: Two-time winner Saina Nehwal and defending champion Parupalli Kashyap made a positive start to their campaign at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament, reaching the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s and men’s singles competition respectively, here on Wednesday.
Saina reached the second round with a 21-7, 21-9 thrashing of Matilda Petersen of Sweden in just 28 minutes to set up a clash with Russian Natalia Perminova.
Saina was in complete control throughout the match and won seven points on the trot in both games to force her Swedish opponent into submission.
Kashyap, on the other hand, first notched up a 21-14, 21-16 victory over compatriot Anup Sridhar and then registered a 21-10, 21-12 win over Malaysia’s Yee Han Chong in his second match of the day to reach the third round, where he will face 12th seed Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia.
Second seed and last edition’s runners-up, PV Sindhu, however, had to toil before getting across Malaysia’s Li Lian Yang 21-19, 24-22 to set up a clash with Sabrina Jaquet of Switzerland on Thursday.
Former national champion Sayali Gokhale, National Games champion Arundhati Pantawane, Tanvi Lad, Saili Rane and Dhanya Nair also reached the prequarters on the day.
Among other Indians in the men’s singles, second seed Ajay Jayaram, third seed RMV Gurusaidutt, fourth seed Anand Pawar, sixth seed K Srikanth, seventh seed HS Prannoy, eighth seed Sourabh Verma, 11th seed Sai Praneeth B, 14th seed Arvind Bhat, 16th seed Subhankar Dey and young Aditya Prakash – all reached the pre-quarters.
Thirteenth seed Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin also reached the third round.
In the women’s singles, Sayali, Arundhati and Tanvi Lad notched up victories. (PTI)