Saina sails into Indonesia Open 2nd round

Defending champion Saina Nehwal was off to a flying start at the Indonesian Open Super Series, beating Bulgaria's Linda Zecheri in straight games in her opening match here on Wednesday.

The fourth seeded Saina took just 29 minutes to get past the unseeded Zechiri 21-12, 21-10 in a lopsided contest here.

Saina will next face another unseeded Bulgarian in Petya Nedelcheva, who rallied to defeat Ukraine's Larisa Griga 17-21, 21-19, 21-9.

Zechiri did put up some fight to start with but Saina soon began to control the proceedings, reeling off 10 straight points to clinch the opening game that was tied 12-12 at one stage.

Saina was in top form in the second game as she quelled Zechiri's challenge with superior net play and fine smash winners.

In men's singles, Ajay Jayaram, who made it to the main round through the qualifiers, lost to fifth seeded Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark 22-24 12-21.

In women's doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa stormed into the pre-quarterfinals after a straight set (21-17 21-17) victory over Dutch duo of Lotte Jonathans and Paulien van Dooremalen in a 31-minute first round contest.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Jwala and Ashwini will take on six seeded Indonesian pair of Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii who defeated the Chinese duo of Ma Jin and Pan Pan 21-15 23-21 in another first round match.

It was sad news for India as men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas crashed out in the first round losing a gruelling three-game encounter against British pair of Anthony Clarke and Chris Langridge. The Indians lost 21-18, 17-21, 16-21.

The British duo will now meet Danish top seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen who entered second round defeating Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata 21-11, 22-20.