Saina makes rollicking start at World Championship, enters 3rd round

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India's Saina Nehwal advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships after thumping Chloe Magee of Ireland in straight games to make a resounding start to her campaign in the women's singles event of the prestigious tournament here today.

World number six Saina proved too good for the Irish who suffered a humiliating 10-21 7-21 loss in a 26-minute second round contest here.

Saina will meet 14th seed Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong in the next round. Pui beat Li Michelle of Canada 23-21 17-21 21-17.

Ajay Jayaram also reached the pre-quarterfinals with a straight-games victory over Russian Vladimir Ivanov in men's singles competition.

The World number 35 beat Vladimir 21-19 21-17 in 34 minutes to set up a clash with sixth seed Jin Chen of China in the third round.

P Kashyap played his heart out but squandered as many as five match points to go down 22-24 21-17 20-22 to world number seven Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam in the second round.

V Diju also made a successful return to the court as he along with partner Jwala Gutta thrashed Jien Guo Ong and Sook Chin Chong of Malaysia 21-11 21-15 in a 29-minute mixed doubles match at the Wembley arena.

In women's doubles, Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa stunned Chinese Taipei's Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien 21-18 21-18 to reach the pre-quarters.

The Commonwealth Games good medallist pair will take on 11th seeds Lok Yan Poon and Ying Suet Tse of Hong Kong in the third round.

Earlier, the 21-year-old Saina was at her aggressive best as she digged in her repertoire and played varied strokes to completely bamboozle her opponent.