London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal eased past Ireland’s Rachael Darragh in straight games in the women’’s singles opening round to make a winning start to her campaign at the Orleans Masters in Franche on Wednesday.
The Super 100 tournament in France is part of the restructured Olympic qualification period.
The fourth seeded Indian, who needs as many ranking points as possible to make it to her fourth Olympics, took just 21 minutes to beat Darragh 21-9, 21-5 and set up a clash with France’s Marie Batomene, ranked 65 in the world. It will be their first meeting.
Nehwal had pulled out of the opening round of All England Open Championships last week after suffering a thigh injury. She played on Wednesday with heavy strapping around her right quad region but moved with comfort on the court, managing to get her lunges right in what was just a brief test.
Top Indian male shuttler Srikanth Kidambi, seeded number one, entered the third round with a 21-15, 21-10…