Saina Nehwal beat Singapore Beiwen Zhang 21-12, 21-13 to advance to the second round of the Chinese Open Super Series Premier. Saina, who had recently won the National Badminton Championships beating PV Sindhu in the final, won her women’s singles opener in half an hour in Fuzhou. Saina had won the tournament in 2014. She will next face fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.

Saina, who is currently ranked 11th in the BWF rankings for women’s singles players, has a 1-3 win-loss record against fourth ranked Yamaguchi. All three losses have come in meetings this year. Saina, who won the tournament in 2014 and reached the women’s singles final the next year, will next take on Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, in the next round.

The World No.4 has a 3-1 advantage over the Hyderabadi in career meetings and has beaten Saina the three times the two faced each other this year. Saina is looking to book a place in the BWF Super Series finals next month with a decent showing in China. Earlier in the day, the campaign for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty got over in the opener as Chinese fifth seeds Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan won 21-13, 21-13 in 36 minutes.