Korea Open | Saina Nehwal lone winner for India after first round
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Saina Nehwal marched past her opponent without much difficulty winning the match in 40 minutes to reach the pre-quarterfinal. Earlier in the month, after the Asian Games, Saina Nehwal had made an unceremonial first-round exit from the China Open where she had won the title in the year 2015.
Kidambi Srikanth pulled out of the Korea Open having participated in the back-to-back tournaments in Japan and China earlier this month. In such a scenario, the Indian contingent was being led by the former World number one Saina Nehwal and all the hopes were pinned on her.
Saina had her match against World No.39 Kim Hyo MIn and at the break of the first game, Saina had let her opponent score only three points. Kim reduced the deficit a bit in the second half but ultimately lost the round 21-12. The second game was almost similar in pattern with Kim barely reaching 11 points when Saina was on the match point, ultimately sealing the match 21-12, 21-11 in a one-sided affair.
Apart from the fifth-seeded Saina, Sameer Verma was participating in the men’s singles in the absence of Srikanth. Only second Indian to reach Hong Kong Open finals, Sameer lost his match to World No. 17 Anders Antonsen of Denmark 21-15 16-21 7-21. He was the lone participant in the men's category for India as Ajay Jayaram failed to qualify for the main draw.
India, however, had another participant in the women’s category in youngster Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka but she too disappointed. Young Vaishnavi was totally outplayed by sixth seed Beiwen Zhang of USA by a scoreline that read 10-21 9-21.
