In Badminton, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal today made a winning start at the BWF Championships in Tokyo defeating Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in straight games. She beat Yi 21-19, 21-9 to enter to the next round at the world event. Former champion Nehwal got a bye to the 3rd round as her opponent for 2nd-round Nozomi Okuhara of Japan withdrew from the tournament.
She will now face winner of the second-round match being held between 12th seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand and Yvonne Li of Germany. Indian duo of Shikha Gautam and Aditi Bhatt defeated M. Corsini and J. Mair while another pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly beat Low Yeen Yuan and V. Siow to progress in the women’s doubles. Indian pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar are battling 14th seeds Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand in the mixed doubles.
Meanwhile, J. Dewangan and V. G. Prasad lost to J. Moore and G. Mairs in the mixed doubles event. Earlier, Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and H. S. Prannoy have progressed to the Men’s Singles second round of the tournament.
