BWF World Championship: Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth grabs the victory cup

New Delhi : India’s popular shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth jagged up comfy victories over their opponents to announce a remarkable start at the BWF World Championship on Tuesday.

Saina, who is a badminton singles player who won silver and bronze in the previous version of the championship, defeated Turkey's Aliye Demirbag 21-17 21-8 in the second round to set up a pre-quarterfinal conflict with 2013 champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand. 

Fifth seed Srikanth dispatched Ireland's Nhat Nguyen 21-15 21-16 in his campaign opener to join compatriots HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and B Sai Praneeth, who received a walkover after his opponent, Korea's Son Wan Ho, stretched out in the second round

Srikanth, who won four titles last season, will face Spain's Pablo Abian next, while Praneeth will meet another spaniard, Luis Enrique Penalver.

"It was a good first outing for me. My body feels good and that is all that matters to me, not thinking about anything else. The conditions are different. There is lot of drift here. So I took time to adjust to the conditions," Srikanth said after the match. 

"I will be better tomorrow when I play Pablo. It will be a tough match, so will give my best," he added.