New Delhi, Oct. 10: The Sunday crowd which came in huge numbers to cheer India’s badminton sensation Saina Nehwal were a tad disappointed. The Indian ace was on court for just 17 minutes as she stream-rolled her opponent Sarah Thomas of Wales 21-5, 21-5 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s singles event.
At the Siri Fort, the Welsh youngster was never a threat for the top seed. Saina set up a round of 16 encounter with Caroline Black of Northern Island.
The mismatched contest got off to a sedate start, with the scores at 3-2 before the Hyderabadi lass stepped on the gear and cruised through the first game without much fuss. In fact, Saina looked to be in a tearing hurry even as Sarah failed to read her opponent’s trademark strokes.
The second game which lasted a minute more than the first saw Saina falter on a few cross-court smashes, but that hardly ruffled any feathers.
Speaking about the pace of her match, Saina said, “I did want to finish off the match fast because if I had given away more points it would have obviously piled pressure on me,” said Saina.
Indian shuttlers, on a whole, had a good run in the individual events as they sailed through their matches, without much ado.
Aditi Mutatkar dispatched her Sri Lankan rival Subodha Dahanayake 21-14, 21-7. She later paired up with Aparna Balan to advance in the women’s doubles event.
In the men’s draw, third seed Chetan Anand got past Ebenezer Olaoluwa of Nigeria 21-12, 21-6, while Parupalli Kashyap made light work of Jamaican Charles Pyne’s challenge, scoring a 21-5, 21-2 victory.
In the mixed doubles event, the duo of Rupesh Kumar and Ashwini Ponappa were a little rusty but managed to shrug of the Aussie challenge from Raj Veeran and Vithi Veeran. Winning the first game 21-16, the Indian pair went down 18-21 in the second before bouncing back in time to take the decider 21-18. In contrast V. Diju and Jwala Gutta cruised into the round of 16.