[1]India ace shuttler Saina Nehwal started her title defence on a positive note, thrashing Japan's Sayaka Sato in straight-games in the first round of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold at Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday.
National champion Sourabh Verma and top shuttlers, Ajay Jayaram and P. Kashyap, also reached the second round after notching up contrasting wins in the opening round on Tuesday.
The world number four Saina beat Sayaka 21-13 21-8 in a 33-minute women's singles match.
Sourabh showed his mettle when he notched up a 22-20 20-22 21-19 victory over Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, while Jayaram thrashed local shuttler Lukas Nussbaumer 21-9 21-12 and Kashyap saw off Russia's Stanislav Pukhov 21-9 21-10 in just 22 minutes late on Tuesday night.
However, R.M.V. Gurusaidutt and Arvind Bhat failed to cross the first hurdle.
Gurusaidutt lost 11-21 24-26 to fourth seed Chinese Jin Chen, while experienced Arvind suffered a 21-10 16-21 14-21 defeat to Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine.
India's top mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V. Diju, seeded eighth, also became first round casualty after losing to Japanese duo of Shoji Sato and Shizuka Matsuo 13-21 15-21 in a 25-minute match.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/saina-afpjpgcropdisplay1jpgcropdisplayjpg-863