Saina drawn in easy group at London Olympics

London  :  Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal should have it easy in the group stages of her Olympic campaign, according to the draw announced here Monday.

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 number five and is seeded fourth for the Games. Each player also has a bye in the group.

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 knock-out 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

In doubles, the top two of the four groups will qualify for the quarterfinals.