Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and leading male shuttler Kidambi Srikanth won their respective group encounters of the $1,000,000 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Superseries Finals here Thursday.
While the World No.4 Saina defeated South Korean Sung Ji Hyun 21-12, 21-18 in 44 minutes in women's singles Group A contest, Srikanth, who Thursday jumped two places to take a career-high sixth spot in BWF rankings, got the better of the World No. 8 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-18, 21-13 in 38 minutes in men's singles Group B match at the Hamdan Sports Complex.
Thursday's win over the World No. 5 Sung helped Saina take a 6-1 lead in career meetings. Saina had defeated reigning Asian Games champion Shixian Wang in her opener Wednesday.
Both the Indians have a good chance of qualify for the semi-finals of the season-ending Superseries tournament.
The 24-year-old Saina will Friday face the World No.8 Bae Yeon Ju of South Korea while the 21-year-old Srikanth, who had defeated Japanese Kento Momota in the first match, will meet the World no.3 Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark in a Group B match.
In other matches of the day, Bae created a major upset as she ousted the World No.2 Shixian from the competition with a 21-17, 21-17 victory in 41 minutes.