Birmingham, March 5 (IANS) Saina Nehwal and women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa entered the second round, while male shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap lost in the opening round of the All England Open Badminton Championships at the Barclaycard Arena here on Wednesday.
World No.3 Saina registered a comfortable 21-8, 21-12 victory in 38 minutes over qualifier and World No.53 Bellaetrix Manuputty of Indonesia. In the next round the Olympic bronze medallist will face the winner between two qualifiers – South Korean Kim Hyo Min and Japan’s Yui Hashimoto.
World No.5 Srikanth was taken to task by World No.14 Kento Momota of Japan. The Indian lost the first game 18-21. He made a strong comeback in the second game 21-12 but lost the third 15-21 to crash out in the first round of the $500,000 Super series tournament.
Momota will meet World No.16 Marc Zwiebler. The German staved off a strong challenge from South Korean Lee Dong Keun 21-17, 19-21, 21-19 in an hour and 36 minutes.
World No.12 Parupalli Kashyap looked out of sorts and lost 13-21, 12-21 in 33 minutes to sixth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Jwala-Ashwini defeated Malaysian team of Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Fie Cho Soong 21-12, 20-22, 21-14 in 51 minutes. The 2011 World Championships bronze medal-winning Indian pair will meet Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei. The Chinese pair went past South Korea’s Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan 21-13, 19-21, 21-5.
Also advancing was the men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sume eth Reddy. They overcame a poor start against China’s Chai Biao and Hong Wei. They lost the first game 9-21 before winning the next two 21-17, 21-17.
In the second round, the Indian pair will be up against the winner between Indonesia’s Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Germany’s Max Schwenger and Josche Zurwonne.