Saina, Praneeth advance at Badminton Worlds
Chinese top seeds Li and Liu suffer a shock exit in second round of men’s doubles
Olympic 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and B. Sai Praneeth advanced to the third round of the World Badminton Championships here yesterday.
Saina, seeded 12th, took only 33 minutes to dismantle the unseeded Swiss Sabrina Jaquet and register an easy 21-11, 21-12 victory in the women’s singles second-round clash. The Hyderabadi, a 2015 edition runner-up, had got a bye in her first round.
In the pre-quarter-finals, Saina will meet the winner between unseeded compatriot Tanvi Lad and South Korean second seed Sung ji Hyun.
Praneeth battled hard to get past Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 14-21, 21-18, 21-19 in an hour and 12 minutes.
Praneeth will face the winner between German Marc Zwiebler and Chinese Taipei sixth seed Chou Tien Chen.
Chinese top seeds Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen suffered a shock exit in the second round of the men’s doubles at the World Championships in Glasgow yesterday. After a bye in the first round, the pair met their match in new Indonesian pairing Mohammad Ahsan and Rian Agung Saputro, who came from behind to win 19-21, 21-18, 21-18.
“They were faster than us today,” reflected Liu. “And they did better in the long rallies.” Li said he and his partner would draw on the experience for next time. “We were unlucky to lose,” said Li. “All three games were very close But this has been a good experience and we must just work harder and harder.”
Ahsan and Saputro have been together for just a year since teaming up after the Rio Olympics.
“We are very happy,” said Ahsan. “We were confident we could beat the world number ones.”