London: India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal made a rousing start to her bid for an Olympic medal as she spanked Swiss Sabrina Jaquet in straight games in a lop-sided women's singles group stage opening match here on Sunday.
The world number five Indian was too good for the 65th ranked Swiss as she took just 22 minutes to complete a 21-9 21-4 victory at the Wembley arena here.
Sabrina, who had qualified for the Games by reaching the quarter finals of the 2012 European Championship in Karlskrona, Sweden, could not provide any resistance to Saina, who launched her campaign on a dominating note.
The 22-year-old Indian, who came into the tournament after winning the Thailand Grand Prix Gold and Indonesian Super Series Premium last month, took 12 minutes to wrap up the first match, before sealing the issue in her favour by winning the second game in just 10 minutes.
Such was the domination of the Indian that Sabrina was reduced to a bystander as the Indian kept lapping up her points in quick succession. The girl from Hyderabad led by a massive 12 and 17 points in the first and second game respectively.
Saina, who had reached the quarterfinals in her Olympic debut at the Beijing Games four years ago, will take on Lianne Tan of Belgium in another group E match on Monday.
"It's a dream for every player to take part in the Olympics. I'm happy with the way I'm playing but we'll just have to wait and see," said Nehwal who defeated Switzerland's Sabrina Jaquet in her first singles match of Group E.
On her contrasting Olympic Games experiences, she said "It's been good. It's my second Olympics and last time I was only 18 years old. Now people expect a lot because I'm the fourth seed so it's been difficult."
There is a lot of pressure on her to deliver a medal for India and Saina said she was prepared to slog it out to achieve that goal.
On how she coped up with the pressure, the Hyderabadi shuttler said: "It's not too bad now that the first match is out of the way. In the first game I was very nervous. It was a good match. I just need to focus and be ready for anything."
Speaking about her experience of playing at the Wembley Arena, she said: "Sometimes there are drafts in stadiums but there is none here. The crowd is lovely and very supportive. Here in London I'm happy because I've performed well here in the past but it's a little cold which was difficult for me."
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