ASIAN GAMES 2010 – Relatively easy draw for Saina

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Saina Nehwal has a relatively easy draw at the upcoming Asian Games in Guangzhou. The draw released by the Badminton World Federation has the second seed progressing into round two with a bye.

Dev S Sukumar, DNA. Photos: Badmintonphoto

The most dangerous player in her quarter is sixth seed Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong, the silver medallist at the last Asian Games. Saina will not meet a Chinese player until the semi-finals.

Coming off a 2-gold, one-silver, one-bronze overall badminton performance at home in the Commonwealth Games, India has it tough in most of the other events, including the men’s team and women’s team draws. While the men take on Chinese Taipei first, before a potential second round against Indonesia, the women should be able to get beyond Indonesia in the first round and Chinese Taipei in the second.

In the individual events, Aditi Mutatkar looks set for a second round match against fourth seed Eriko Hirose, to whom she had lost recently. Chetan Anand has a tough second round match against Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana, while Kashyap has a minefield of a draw from the first round.

In the men’s doubles, Sanave Thomas / Rupesh Kumar have a second round date against world No.1 pair Koo Kien Keat / Tan Boon Heong – to whom they lost at the CWG. Gold medallists at the CWG Jwala Gutta/ Ashwini Ponnappa take on a Thai pair in their opener; if they get beyond that, as they are expected to, they run into Chinese duo Cheng Shu / Zhao Yunlei.

Mixed doubles pair Jwala and V Diju have a first-round bye and a second round match with either Malaysian pair Chan Peng Soon / Liu Ying Goh or Shin Baek Cheol / Lee Hyo Jung.

First round:

WS:
Saina Nehwal: bye
Aditi Mutatkar vs. Thilini Jayasinghe (SL)

MS:
Chetan Anand vs. Niluka Karunaratne (SL)
P Kashyap vs. Nguyen Tien Minh (Vie)

MD:
Rupesh / Sanave: Bye
Akshay Dewalkar / Arun Vishnu vs. N Karunaratne / D Karunaratne (SL)

WD:
Aparna Balan / Prajakta Sawant vs. Marylen Ng/ KW Woon
A Ponnappa/ J Gutta vs. Savitree A / P Munkitchokecharoen (Tha)

XD:
Diju / J Gutta: Bye