Saina Nehwal to start her campaign today in Asian Games 2010 at Guangzhou

Meanwhile, India’s best bet for a badminton medal at the Asian Games, Saina Nehwal, starts her campaign on Wednesday. The 20-year-old was the lone player to win her match in India’s first-round defeat to Chinese Taipei in the team competition earlier and would be eager to break the medal drought in her individual capacity.

Seeded second behind world number one Wang Xin of China, the Hyderabad star is motivated after her campaign in the team event ended prematurely. Saina, who came to Guangzhou after winning the crown at last month’s Commonwealth Games, is not going to have it easy here.


Given a first round bye, she opens her campaign against the winner of the match between Malaysia’s Lydia Cheah and Vietnam’s Thi Trang Vu — expected to be an easy encounter. Thereafter, she is set to meet sixth seed Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong, the world number 12, which could be a tricky encounter.

She has a 1-1 record with Saina winning their previous encounter in October 2009 in the Yonex French Super Series in half an hour. But the Indian had lost to the Hong Kong girl in the 2007 Swiss Open.

A potentially tough match-up with third seed Wang Shixian of China awaits the Indian shuttler if she reaches the semi-finals. It was the Chinese player who upset Saina’s plans at the last world championship in August beating her in the tournament in which Saina was seeded second.

If the Indian avenges her defeat to the Chinese world number four, Saina will have a potential shot at the gold against top seed and title favourite Wang Xin, who has fourth seed Eriko Hirose to contend with in her half of the draw.

Meanwhile, Arvind Bhat has an easy opening round encounter on Wednesday against Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne. A victory there would pilot him to a likely contest against sixth seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, ranked sixth in the world. Talented youngster Periapalli Kashyap, has a very tough opener against fifth seed Nguyen Tien Minh, ranked eighth in the world today.