Nanjing (China) July 31 (IANS) Indian star Saina Nehwal defeated Aliye Demirbag of Turkey in straight games to enter the third round of the women s singles category at the Badminton World Championships here on Tuesday.
Saina fought off a brave effort from her Turkish opponent to cruise to a 21-17 21-18 victory in just 39 minutes.
The Hyderabad-based Indian is expected to face a tougher challenge in the next round where she will meet an experienced opponent in fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Indonesia.
Ratchanok staged a strong comeback to win a tough encounter against the impressive Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark.
The nail-biting see-saw battle which lasted an hour and 16 minutes saw Ratchanok carve out a 16-21 22-20 21-10 victory.

--IANS ajb/sed