New Delhi: India ace shuttler Saina Nehwal started her title defence on a positive note, thrashing Japan's Sayaka Sato in straight-games in the first round of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold at Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday.
National champion Sourabh Verma and top shuttlers, Ajay Jayaram and P Kashyap, also reached the second round after notching up contrasting wins in the opening round on Tuesday.
The world number four Saina beat Sayaka 21-13 21-8 in a 33-minute women's singles match.
Sourabh showed his mettle when he notched up a 22-20 20-22 21-19 victory over Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, while Jayaram thrashed local shuttler Lukas Nussbaumer 21-9 21-12 and Kashyap saw off Russia's Stanislav Pukhov 21-9 21-10 in just 22 minutes late last night.
However, RMV Gurusaidutt and Arvind Bhat failed to cross the first hurdle.
Gurusaidutt lost 11-21 24-26 to fourth seed Chinese Jin Chen, while experienced Arvind suffered a 21-10 16-21 14-21 defeat to Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine.
India's top mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju, seeded eighth, also became first round casualty after losing to Japanese duo of Shoji Sato and Shizuka Matsuo 13-21 15-21 in a 25-minute match.
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