Sport

Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar make progress

— Photo: AFP

MOVING AHEAD: India’s Saina Nehwal recorded her second win to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

BEIJING: Indians Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar played authoritatively to progress in the badminton event here on Sunday.

While Saina recorded her second win in the tournament, a 21-18, 21-10 verdict over Larysa Gryga of Ukraine for a place in the pre-quarterfinals, Anup Sridhar scored a 21-16, 21-14 victory over Marco Vascancelos of Portugal in the first round.

Saina started slowly, gauging her opponent. She allowed six points in a row to her opponent to trail 10-13, but stepped up her game to win next five points to regain the momentum for a 15-13 lead.

There was some hesitancy in winding up the game as well, as Saina let Larysa tease her by saving three game points.

Saina picked up momentum to eventually outplay her opponent in the second game.

The young Indian girl, who has considerably improved her fitness and agility on court, will be put to an acid test on Monday when she takes on the fourth-seeded Chen Wang of Hong Kong who has beaten her twice in their two previous meetings.

Sridhar was more dominant than the score would suggest against the Portuguese, whose smashes were blunted with a sure touch.

The Indian lad tested his own arsenal and combined deception with calculated drives to exasperate an opponent who struggled to control his errors.

It was a slow start, but Sridhar wrested the initiative early in the first game by collecting eight points to one by the Portuguese for a 11-7 lead and did not slacken his grip or concede the lead thereafter.

The tall and strongly-built Sridhar, looking well-tuned for the Games, will play Shoji Sato of Japan for a place in the pre-quarterfinals, possibly against the eighth-seeded Dane, Peter Hoeg Gade (Christensen), former world No. 1 and All-England champion.

“As long as I am able to play the way I did today, I will be happy,” said Sridhar, who had been nursing a series of injuries, including a twisted ankle recently.

His opponent was understandably dejected, especially with the way he had handled the second game.

“I lost my mind in the second game. One side of the court had more speed than the other. I couldn’t control the shuttle,” Vasconcelos said.