Saina Nehwal: Fifth seed Saina Nehwal entered the next round by defeating World No-42 Germany’s Yvonne Lei 21-16 21-14 in 35 minutes in the women’s singles first round of the tournament.
BARCELONA: Indian women’s badminton player Saina Nehwal has made a winning start at the Barcelona Masters, making it to the second round. Fifth seed Saina Nehwal entered the next round of the women’s singles in the first round of the tournament by beating World No-42 Germany’s Yvonne Lei 21-16 21-14 in 35 minutes. In the men’s category, Ajay Jayaram and Kidambi Srikanth of India also won the match and entered the next round. Jayaram got a walkover in the qualification.
Jayaram defeated France’s Kristo Popov in the first round 21–14, 21–12 in a 30-minute match to secure his place in the next round. He will face compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in the second round. Third seed Srikanth entered the second round by defeating Subhankar De of India 23-21 21-18.
In the men’s category, HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap have been eliminated in the first round. Daren Liew of Malaysia defeated Prannoy 21-18 21-15. Kashyap had to leave midway against Yagol Coelho of Brazil in his first round. With Kashyap retiring, Coelho gets a chance to move on to the next round.
At the time when Kashyap left the match, he had a score of 9-21 21-18 14-12 against Coelho. Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles, the pair of Pranav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy defeated Matthias Christian and Alexandra Boje 10-21 21-16 21-17 in 56 minutes to enter the next round.
