London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal shrugged off any suggestions of rustiness to beat South Korea's Yeon Ju Bae 21-17, 21-17 to move into the women's singles second round of the Denmark Super Series badminton tournament.
The world number four, who had not played any tournament since her London exploits, needed some time to settle down as the Korean took a 7-4 lead in the first game. But Saina quickly drew level and had enough fuel to pull away in the business end of the first game.
The Bharat Petroleum employee was always in command in the second and would now face Japan's Minatsu Mitani. The Indian ace enjoys a 2-0 head-to-head record and would be considered a favourite for a berth in the quarterfinals.
In the day's other matches, Anand Pawar came up with a spirited performance against fifth seed Sho Sasaki of Japan before going down 14-21, 21-15, 21-11 in the men's singles first round.
Men's doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and K Tarun and mixed combination of Tarun and Ashwini Ponnappa were knocked out in the first round itself.
The world number four, who had not played any tournament since her London exploits, needed some time to settle down as the Korean took a 7-4 lead in the first game. But Saina quickly drew level and had enough fuel to pull away in the business end of the first game.
The Bharat Petroleum employee was always in command in the second and would now face Japan's Minatsu Mitani. The Indian ace enjoys a 2-0 head-to-head record and would be considered a favourite for a berth in the quarterfinals.
In the day's other matches, Anand Pawar came up with a spirited performance against fifth seed Sho Sasaki of Japan before going down 14-21, 21-15, 21-11 in the men's singles first round.
Men's doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and K Tarun and mixed combination of Tarun and Ashwini Ponnappa were knocked out in the first round itself.
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