Badminton News: Former Indian world number 1 player Saina Nehwal qualified for the knockout stages of the prestigious BWF World Championships in Tokyo on Tuesday night (8/23).

Saina Nehwal, who won silver and bronze at the World Championships, defeated Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in back-to-back matches 21-19 and 21-9 in the first round of women’s singles.

Saina was given a bye to the next round when her opponent Nozomi Okuhara was pulled out at the last minute due to injury.

Japan’s former world champion earned a first-round bye and based on that, Saina earned a direct third-round entry.

Saina will next face the winner of the second round match between Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand and Yvonne Li of Germany on Thursday.

Teenagers Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly easily beat Malaysia’s Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow 21-11, 21-13 in the first round of women’s singles.

The Indian girls had a tough second-half clash against Malaysian 10th seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan. They have lost three times this year to representatives from Malaysia and twice recently at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Indians Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam beat Italians Martina Corsini and Judith Mair 21-8, 21-14.

They are also opposed to a formidable Korean couple, Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong.

Experienced pair Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy will face top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China on Wednesday.

India suffered two mixed doubles defeats. Ishani Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto lost in the second round to 14th seeds Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand 14-21 17-21, while Gregory Mairs and Jenny Moore of England beat Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan 21- 10 and 23-21.

Tags: saina nehwal, world championship 2022

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