After Hidayat scalp,Sai Praneeth beats World No.4 Yun Hu

Saina Nehwal avenged her quarterfinal loss at the Thailand Open by Juan Gu with a comfortable straight-game victory over the Singaporean in the opening round of the Singapore Super Series here on Wednesday. The World No. 2 Indian took 40 minutes to pack off Juan,ranked 21,21-14 23-21 in the women’s singles competition at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to record her fifth victory over the local player.

The 23-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Japanese Eriko Hirose,who holds a 3-2 record against the Indian. The world No. 12 had spoilt Saina’s All England campaign when she beat her in straight games in the quarterfinals in the 2011 edition.

Saina surged ahead to a 5-1 lead initially but Juan clawed back with four straight points. However,the Indian

didn’t allow Juan much chance after that and successfully kept her at bay to earn the bragging rights. In the second game,Juan was impressive as she held a 10-5 lead early on but Saina bounced back to level par at 12-12. After a brief fight,Saina was successful in grabbing the lead at 19-16 but Juan didn’t want to go down without a fight. The Singaporean produced a four-point burst to lead 20-19 but it was Saina who had the last laugh in the end.

Other Indians falter

However,all other Indians suffered defeats in the opening round to crash out of the tournament. Ajay Jayaram went down fighting 19-21 21-18 17-21 against fourth seed Kenichi Tago of Japan,while top seed Pengyu Du sent Anand Pawar packing 21-16 21-13 in another men’s singles match. Another promising shuttler Sourabh Varma was defeated 17-21 17-21 by Wing Ki Wong in another men’s singles opening round match which lasted for 37 minutes.

In women’s singles,Arundhati Pantawane lost to world No. 26 Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva 18-21 18-21,while PC

Thulasi put up a gallant fight against world No. 14 Indonesian Lindaweni Faetri before going down 23-21 16-21 16-21 in an energy-sapping 66-minute match.

In mixed doubles competition,Indian pair of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa lost to third seeds Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir 6-21 10-21,while Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan suffered a 17-21 21-19 12-21 loss to Thai combo of Songphon Anugritayawon and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul.