India's badminton star Saina Nehwal started off her campaign in style winning her first match 21-17 21-17 against Lohaynny Vicente of Brazil. Her victory comes close on the heels of P.V. Sindhu's victory over Hungarian Laura Sarosi earlier in the day.
It was a neck-to-neck fight in the first game with both the players tied at 17-17 at one point in the match. But Saina won four consecutive points to close out the first game.
Egged on by the local crowd, Vincente managed to tie the scores at 2-2 in the second game but Saina displayed her master class to go into the break leading 11-5. The local favourite, however, managed to narrow the lead down to 14-11.
But there was no stopping Saina as she stretched the lead to 20-14. With six match points, she had the match in her pocket but a late fightback by Vincente saw her saving three match points.
But the fight came a tad too late, with India's badminton ace wrapping the match soon after.
