New Delhi: Saina Newhal cruised into the second round of Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold with a 21-18, 22-20 win over Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand at Johar Bharu on Wednesday.
In the men's singles, Ajay Jayram played brillinatly to knock out two Malaysian players and move into the third round. Ninth seed Arvind Bhat also made it to the third round, but four other Indians bowed out on the first day.
Second seeded Saina, who entered the tournament after her Indonesia Super Series victory last week, had her task cut out against World No 39 Buranaprasertsuk as she was stretched in both the games.
World No 8 Saina will now meet another Thai, Ratchanok Intanon, in the second round.
Another Indian in the women's singles draw, Aditi Mutatkar, retired 11-21, 4-11 against Mingtian Fu of Singapore.
Unseeded Jayaram gave enough display of his potantial when he first crushed Chong Cheih Lok 21-16, 21-8 and then got the better of Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 21-13, 24-22. He will next face Yun Hu of Hong Kong.
Zainuddin had taken out third seed Chetan Anand 16-21, 21-18, 17-21 in the first round.
Bhat defeated Sune Gavnholt of Denmark 21-16, 16-21, 21-16 in the first round before prevailing in another gruelling battle Yongzhao Ashton Chen of Singapore 21-18, 17-21 21-15. He will net meet Long Chen of China.
Anand Pawar went down fighting to Chinese Wei Feing Chong 14-21, 21-11, 21-15
Anup Sridhar, 16th, lost to Japanese Koichi Saeki 21-17, 11-21, 17-21
Parupalli Kashyap cleared the first round against Japanese Kazuteru Kozai 21-13, 14-21, 21-11 but fell to Malaysian Chin Seang Tan 20-22, 11-21 in the second round.
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