Saina, Kashyap advance in Swiss Open; Pawar crashes out

Basel: 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. Meanwhile, Mumbai shuttler Anand Pawar crashed out after losing his men’s singles third round to Chinese Taipei’s Tien Chen Chou. Chou won 14-21, 21-12, 21-12 in 51 minutes to take a 3-0 career advantage over Pawar. Saina got rid of World No.333 Chisato 21-12, 21-12 in 34 minutes in their first women’s singles encounter 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. [caption id=“attachment_1432781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Saina Nehwal. REUTERS[/caption] 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 Mumbaikar twice in the past. IANS