Malaysia Open | Saina Nehwal reaches second round; Sameer Verma bows out

After an impressive gold medal at this year’s 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia, former world number one Saina Nehwal began the 2018 BWF Malaysian Open with a stylish win over Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong. Nehwal made sure she beat her Asian counterpart with a scoreline of 21-12 21-16 in a match that lasted just 42 minutes. Saina has been in good form of late and today’s win ensured a place in the second round of the ongoing tournament where she will go up against second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. After she finished second at the Indonesia Masters earlier this year, Saina will look to seal a title finish in Malaysia despite being handed a tough group this year.

After a month-long break, India’s other top shuttlers like PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will also resume their season in a bid to add to their trophy cabinet in the south-east Asia leg of BWF world tour.