Murgunde, Nehwal enter second round

New Delhi:

Trupti Murgunde and Saina Nehwal recorded contrasting wins to move into the second round of the women's section in the Asian Satellite Badminton championship in Singapore today. Murgunde, the top ranked Indian in the fray, rallied to beat qualifier Lei Yao of Singapore 5-11 11-3 11-3 while Nehwal thrashed Yu Hang Ooi of Malaysia 11-6 11-0, according to information received here. Nehwal, who does not feature in the International Badminton Federation's ranking list and had to qualify for the main draw, needed just 16 minutes to pack off her opponent, ranked 227th in the world. The Andhra girl now faces Yi Ju Chiu of Chinese Taipei and Murgunde will play Ngoc Nguyen Le of Vietnam in second round. Fine run The Indian men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar/Sanave Thomas and V Diju and Jaseel Ismail also continued their fine run to enter the quarterfinals. Kumar and Thomas drubbed Wei Law and Chee Soon Lim of Singapore 15-0 15-2 in just 15 minutes while Diju and Ismail had to slug it out against Yen Lee and Ronald Susilo of the same country before booking a berth in the last eight 17-14 15-1 in 42 minutes. The two now face Malaysia's Thien How Hoon and Boon Heong Tan, who had accounted for the top seeds Nuttaphon Narkthong and Parnuvat Ngensrisuk of Thailand in the opening round. Diju and Ismail will face second seed Kovit Phisetsarasai and Nitipong Saengsila of Thailand in the quarters. In the opening round last night, Kumar and Thomas defeated Singaporean pair of Kian Khoo and Runxiang Wu 15-4 and 15-2 while Diju and his partner got the better of Kien Chong and Steven Raymond of Malaysia 15-11 15-9. (PTI)