Saina Nehwal came through a tough opening-round encounter at the Indonesia Masters against world No 8 Chen Yufei of China, winning 22-24, 21-15, 21-14 after over an hour.
Despite being ranked just two spots below the Chinese, Nehwal was handed a tough draw, coming up against the 19-year-old in the first round itself.
Nehwal started off well and had two game points in the first game before conceding both, and eventually a 22-24 lead.
However, the Indian fought back after that to take the next game 21-15 and force a decider, which went in a similar direction with Nehwal winning 21-14. Nehwal will take on another 19-year-old Chinese, Chen Xiaoxin, in the second round. Xiaoxin is ranked 21st in the world.
If Nehwal comes through that encounter as well, she could meet PV Sindhu in the quarter-finals.
In the men’s singles draw, world No 30 Sameer Verma wasn’t so lucky as he was beaten in three games by the 21st ranked Japanese Kazumasa Sakai 21-16, 12-21, 21-10.
In the doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their first-round match against the Japanese pair of Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 21-15, 21-17. Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy were, however, beaten by Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han 21-18, 16-21, 21-16.
The other Indians in the fray are PV Sindhu and P Kashyap, who will play their first-round matches later in the day.
