Nehwal Saina clears first hurdle at All England Championship

Birmingham: Saina Nehwal began her All England Badminton Championship campaign with a comfortable win over Scotland`s Kirsty Gilmour here Wednesday. But India`s top male players, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth, lost their opening round matches.

World No.7 Saina sailed past 20th ranked Gilmour 21-15, 21-6 in 32 minutes at the National Indoor Arena. The Hyderabadi next faces American qualifier Beiwen Zhang, who got a walkover from Germany`s World No.11 Juliane Schenk. The second Indian in the women`s singles draw, P.V. Sindhu, plays here first round against Sun Yu of China later Wednesday. World No.19 Kashyap endured a tough loss against fifth ranked Kenichi Tago of Japan. Tago pipped the Indian 14-21, 21-19, 21-17 in a 75 minute battle. World No.21 Srikanth also fell flat, losing 11-21, 15-21 to 15th-ranked Kento Memota of Japan.