Strong start by Indian shuttlers

India made a strong start in the individual events of the Asian Junior Badminton Championships with all but one of its players advancing to the third round in the singles competition in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday.

Saina Nehwal and Arundhati Pantawane advanced in the girls' singles while Jishnu Sanyal, Akshay Dewalkar, Srujan Nadaluri and Ratikanta Saha also reached the third round after

winning both their games on day one of the individual events.

Saina quelled a strong challenge from Sylviana Kurniawan of Indonesia, winning 21-14, 18-21, 21-16 in 46 minutes to advance to the third round.

Sixteen-year-old Saina, ranked 32 in world, got a bye in the first round. She will face Shalini Sugumaran of Malaysia in the third round.

Arundhati defeated Amanda Hogstrom of Sweden 21-15, 21-19. The Indian got a walk over from Basheer Palwasha of Pakistan in her earlier round. She will next face Porntip Burnaprasertsuk of Thailand.

Ashwini Ponappa, however, bowed out after going down 14-21, 16-21 to Eriko Tamaki of Japan in the first round.

Nadaluri pulled off a surprise victory against Wong Shu Ki of Hong Kong, winning 21-14, 22-20 in 40 minutes.

Nandaluri, who overcame Henrik Fahlstrom of Sweden 21-14, 21-17 in the first round, will meet P Tang Fai of Macau next.

Jishnu Sanyal bounced back after losing the first game to hand over a 19-21, 21-15, 21-7 loss to Boon Seong Thng of Singapore in the second round.

Sanyal, who went past Antonio De Vinatea of Peru 21-13, 21-15, will meet Cheol Baek of Korea next.

Ratikanta Saha also reached the third round after a 21-13, 21-17 victory over Saliya Gunaratne of Australia.

Saha, who beat Dennery Minturi of New Zeland 21-18, 21-4 in his opener, will face Lim Fang Yang of Malaysia in the third round.

Akshay Diwalkar crossed the second round hurdle with a 21-17, 21-15 win over Goksel Kundakci of Turkey and set up a clash with Ji Hoon Hong of Korea.

Diwalkar had defeated Ilian Krastev of Bulgaria 21-11, 21-9 in his opening match.

In the mixed doubles, Nadaluri and Ponappa went down 15-21, 16-21 to Li Tan and Ma Jin of China in the first round.

Another Indian pair Tarun and Nitya Sasale lost 21-12, 21-10 to Chris Adcock and Gabriela White of England in the second round.