Saina advances at Badminton World Championships

Nanjing: Indian star Saina Nehwal defeated Aliye Demirbag of Turkey in straight games to enter the third round of the women’s singles category at the Badminton World Championships.

Saina fought off a brave effort from her Turkish opponent to cruise to a 21-17, 21-18 victory in just 39 minutes.

The Hyderabad-based Indian is expected to face a tougher challenge in the next round where she will meet an experienced opponent in fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Indonesia.

Ratchanok staged a strong comeback to win a tough encounter against the impressive Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark.

The nail-biting see-saw battle, which lasted an hour and 16 minutes, saw Ratchanok carve out a 16-21, 22-20, 21-10 victory.