Saina Nehwal fought back from a one-game deficit to enter the second round of the Indonesia Open after registering a 17-21, 21-18, 21-12 win against Thailand's world No. 8 Ratchanok Intanon in Jakarta on Tuesday. The match lasted 57 minutes.
Rio Olympics silver medalist PV Sindhu also progressed into the second round, following a 21-12, 21-19 victory against Pornpawee Chochuwong. Sindhu will next face Beiwen Zhang.
Saina led 4-0 at the start of the first game and extended the lead to 6-2 before leading 11-9 at the changeover. However, Intanon fought back and won six points in a row to close out the game.
The second game was more competitive as Intanon stayed within touching distance of Saina, who led from the early stages of the game and held on to force a decider. The Indian was in complete control in the third game as she led 11-6 at the changeover before winning the match comfortably.
Saina had last participated at the Thailand Open, where she lost in the semi-finals to Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who then lost to Intanon in the final. With this win, Saina improved her head-to-head record to 8-5 against Intanon.
Saina will face Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol in the second round. Jindapol is ranked 15th in the world and has lost all her previous seven matches against Saina. They last faced each other at the Badminton Asia Championships last year where Saina won 21-14, 21-18. Saina has only dropped two games in her seven matches vs. Jindapol.
This is the year's third Superseries Premier event after the All England Open and Malaysia Open. Saina had lost in the quarterfinals of the All England Open to South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun. She also lost in the opening round of the Malaysia Open to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.
Earlier on Tuesday, the mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy exited the tournament after losing 12-21, 9-21 in the first round to Indonesia's Irfan Fadhilah and Weni Anggraini.