BANGKOK, July 31: Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal returned to the court in style, registering a straight-game win over local hope Phittayaporn Chaiwan, to sail into the women�s singles second round of the Thailand Open here on Wednesday.
Returning to action after nearly two months, Saina, who made last-minute withdrawals from Indonesia Open and last week�s Japan Open because of injuries, got past Chaiwan 21-17, 21-19 in her opening round contest.
The seventh seeded Indian will next play the winner of another first round match between Japan�s Sayaka Takahashi and Ruseli Hartawan of Indonesia.
It was good news for Indians in the men�s singles event as well as the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap and Shubhanker Dey all progressed to the next round by overcoming their respective rivals.
Fifth seed Srikanth was made to toil hard for one hour and seven minutes by Chinese qualifier Ren Peng Bo before the Indian came out victorious 21-13, 17-21, 21-19. Srikanth will be up against Thailand�s Khosit Phetpradab in the second round.
Later in the day, Prannoy defeated Hong Kong�s Wong Wing Ki Vincent of 21-16, 22-20, while Kashyap came from a game down to beat Israel�s Misha Zilberman 18-21, 21-8, 21-14.
Both Prannoy and Kashyap have tough second round encounters in hand as they are up against sixth seeded Japanese Kenta Nishimoto and third seed Chou Tien Chen of Taipei respectively.
Lady luck smiled on Subhankar Dey as he was handed a walkover by top seed and World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan in his opening round contest. � PTI
