Saina fends off Lan challenge

Saina,who had beaten Lan in the first round of Thailand grand Prix Gold last week,took little time to wrap up the first game after breaking off at 10-10.

Defending champion Saina Nehwal overcame a second game slump to register a three-game victory over Chinese Lu Lan and enter the second round of the Singapore Open Super Series on Wednesday. The world number 4 took 56 minutes to see off Lan 21-18 13-21 21-16.

Saina,who had beaten Lan in the first round of Thailand grand Prix Gold last week,took little time to wrap up the first game after breaking off at 10-10. However,the 24-year-old Chinese,who had won the World Championship in Hyderabad in 2009,got her act together and bounced back in the second game to draw level at 1-1.

In the decider,Saina opened up a 11-6 lead and held her fort as Lan crushed out of her second successive tournament at the Sinagapore indoor stadium.

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P Kashyap,however,suffered defeat in the opening round,going down in straight games to world number eight Sung Hwan Park 15-21 14-21. The pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also failed to cross the first hurdle losing to Korean combo of Kyung Eun Jung and Ha Na Kim 17-21 14-21.

Qualifier Arundhati Pantawane also suffered defeat in the first round of the main draw,going down to Chinese Taipeis Tzu Ying Tai 16-21 13-21.