Ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective Round 2 matches, on Tuesday, at Badminton World Championship 2018. Nehwal defeated Aliye Demirbag in straight sets, 21-17, 21-8 to enter the third round where she will now compete against Ratchanok Intanon (of Indonesia). Another victory in the day for India came in the form of Kidambi Srikanth.
The shuttler defeated Nhat Nguyen (of Ireland) in straight sets, too, as he won the match 21-15, 21-16. The exciting first round match between Srikanth and Nguyen got over in little more than 35 minutes.
It was an evenly poised contest between the two. The unseeded Irish player took the lead in the first set; however, it was the brilliance of Srikanth that saw him make a comeback, and win the singles match of the Badminton World Championship at Nanjing in China, eventually.
The world number six Indian will now take on Pablo Abian from Spain in third round clash which will take place on August 1. In the mixed doubles, Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy suffered a significant blow as they lost to Gloria Widjaja and Hafiz Faizal of Indonesia 16-21, 4-21 in their first round.
In the men's doubles event, Indian shuttlers Tarun Kona and Saurabh Sharma too slumped to defeat against Chin Chung and Chun Man Tang of China 20-22, 21-18, 17-21 in their opening clash of the tournament.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2018 02:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).