Asian Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal romped off to a straight sets win over Korea’s Kim Hyo Min to progress into the pre-quarterfinals of the USD 600,000 Korea Open on Wednesday.
Fifth-seeded Saina defeated Min 21-12 21-11 in a lop-sided opening round match to reach the next round and will next face local qualifier Kim Ga Eun at the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.
Also Read: Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap to tie the knot in December: Reports
Facing the World No.34, Saina faced little difficulties and broke-off to a 6-2 lead in the initial exchanges and jumped to 12-3 to pocket the first game without a sweat.
It was similar in the second game as Saina once again moved to a 5-2 lead early into the match. Kim’s tactic of playing more into the net was equally tackled by the 10th ranked Indian, who kept the shuttle long and wide. Kim then found it tough for a battle as Saina moved to 18-10 to seal the victory.
It was, however, curtains for Sameer Verma and young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka.
Swiss Open champion Sameer, who had also recently clinched the Hyderabad Open title, went down 21-15 16-21 7-21 against Anders Antonsen of Denmark, despite putting up a tough fight. Meanwhile, rising shuttler lost in straight sets against Beiwen Zhang of USA. Vaishnavi lost 10-21 9-21 to the sixth seed American.
Image Source: NDTV Sports