Saina, Kashyap advance in Swiss Open

Basel, Switzerland: World No.7 shuttler Saina Nehwal made a winning start to her $125,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold campaign by easing past unseeded Japanese Chisato Hoshi at St Jakobshalle here.

The sixth seed got rid of World No.333 Chisato 21-12, 21-12 in 34 minutes in their first women’s singles encounter on Wednesday. Saina will next play French Sashina Vignes Waran in the second round, over whom the Hyderabadi has a 2-0 advantage, for a place in the quarter-finals.

Men’s singles shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Anand Pawar also won their respective second round matches to enter Round 3 late Wednesday night.

Third seed Kashyap beat Germany’s Lukas Schmidt 21-15, 21-14 in 33 minutes while Pawar ousted another German Tobias Wadenka 21-11, 21-4 in 24 minutes.

World No.19 Kashyap now faces an easy third round against Malaysian World No.123 Beryno Jiann Tze Wong over whom the Indian has a 1-0 career lead. However, Pawar faces a tough task against Chinese Taipei sixth seed Tien Chen Chou, who has beaten the Indian twice in the past.