Favourable draw for Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal should have it easy in the group stages of her Olympic campaign, according to the draw announced here yesterday.

World No 55 Lianne Tan of Belgium and 65th-ranked Sabrina Jaquet of Switzerland are the other two players who are in Saina’s group. Saina is ranked No 5 and is seeded fourth for the Games. Each player also has a bye in the group.

Saina Nehwal

In the men’s singles, Parupalli Kashyap has been grouped with 10th seed Tien Minh Nguyen of the Chinese Taipei and Belgium’s Tan Yuhan. Only the winner of the sixteen groups will proceed further to the knockout stages.

Women’s doubles hope Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are drawn in a tough group as they will be facing fourth seeds Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa in their group apart from two other teams.

Jwala and V Diju’s group in the mixed doubles has third seeds Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Lee Yong Dae and Ha Jung Eun.u00a0

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