London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal crushed Ireland’s Rachael Darragh in straight games in the women’s singles opening round to make a winning start to her campaign at the Orleans Masters here on Wednesday.

Easy win for Nehwal

The fourth seeded Indian, who is desperately seeking ranking points to make it to her fourth Olympics, took just 21 minutes to beat Rachael 21-9, 21-5 and set up a clash with France’s Marie Batomene here.