Jakarta: Saina Nehwal made a positive start to the new season, edging past China’s Chen Yufei in a thrilling opening round match at the $350,000 Indonesia Masters World Tour Super 500 badminton tournament, here on Wednesday.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina, who is coming back from an ankle injury, dug deep into her reservoir to eke out a 22-24, 21-15, 21-14 win over world No.7 Chen in a women singles match that lasted an hour and nine minutes.
Young men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also crossed the opening hurdle after beating eighth seeded Japanese pair of Takuto Inque and Yuki Kaneko 21-15, 21-17 to set up a clash with Chinese Taipei’s Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng in the second round.
Earlier, men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 21-16, 16-21 to Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han to bow out of the tournament.
