Saina in French Open Round 3, Ponappa wins mixed doubles match

Indian shuttlers continued to surge ahead in the ongoing French Open Super Series underway here as Saina Nehwal made it to the women's singles third round while Ashwini Ponappa also won her second-round match with mixed doubles partner Vladimir Ivanov, here today.
The fifth-seeded Saina was made to work hard by Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in her 21-19 21-16 win in the second round of the tournament.
Saina, who took just 37 minutes to outplay local girl Sashina Vignes Wara in the opening round, outplayed Kirsty in 39 minutes.
In mixed doubles, Ponnappa and Ivanov got past the Chinese pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong 21-8 18-21 21-9 in the second round.

The Indo-Russian pair of Ponnappa and Ivanov also took 39 minutes to dispatch their seventh-seeded opponents.
The Ponappa-Ivanov duo had got the better of Keigo Sonoda and Shizuka Matsuo of Japan in the first round match.
Earlier, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap had stunned World No4 Kenichi Tago of Japan 21-11 21-18 in the first round of men's singles draw yesterday.