Saina Nehwal after her match, in New Delhi, on Monday. (PTI)

New Delhi: Wiping off beads of sweat from her forehead Jwala Gutta entered the mixed zone and suddenly there was a rush to get a quote from her at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, here on Monday.

India had already taken a 4-0 lead over Kenya in the inaugural rubber and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala and V. Diju did not have to break much of a sweat winning 21-8, 21-5. Literally, of course.

“Oh, it was an easy match,” Jwala said. “But Delhi weather is not kind to me. I am allergic to heat and this is creating a problem,” she added with a smile.

About her reserved partner V. Diju, Jwala said: “He gives a lot of thought while discussing strategies. Do not go by his shy exterior.”

Jwala doesn’t think Commonwealth Games is any different from the other tournaments. “For a sportsperson, every meet has the same importance. CWG may be big for others, but not for us. Yes, we did skip a couple of international meets to prepare for the Games. But that’s it.”

Earlier, Chetan Anand set the tone with an emphatic 21-7, 21-13 win over Munga Yo. In the first game, Chetan was cruising along, going into the break with an 11-4 lead. The second game was easy meat for the India No. 1. “Everything went as expected,” Chetan said, after the match. “The shuttle is moving a bit fast but I think it can be adjusted in a day or two,” he said.

Star attraction Saina Nehwal also had an easy match, winning 21-11, 21-4 against M.M. Joseph. Saina was a bit casual in the fast game but that could stop her from taking an 11-5 lead. In the second game, however, the world No. 3 was all over Joseph. “As expected, I did not have any trouble at all,” she said later. “The shuttle was a bit fast, but don’t read too much into that. I will be able to adapt to this condition in a day or two.”

In the men’s doubles, the Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas duo beat Muga Vo and Patrick Ruto 21-5, 21-5, while in the women’s doubles, Aparna Balan and Ashwini Ponnappa got the better of M.M. Joseph and A.B. Alube 21-8, 21-6.

India, on Wednesday, take on Barbados. Looks like another easy picking is on the cards.

In squash, being played at same venue, India’s medal prospect suffered a major blow when promising women’s singles player, Dipika Pallikal, pulled out of the mega-event due to a fever.

“She has developed a fever and will not participate in the singles event. We are hoping she will be ready for the women’s and mixed doubles starting Saturday,” national coach Cyrus Poncha said.

Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa were the only Indians left in the fray after the second round of the squash singles event. Joshna was stretched a bit by Sharon Wee of Malaysia but the15th seeded Indian eventually won 11-1, 11-4, 8-11, 11-4 to advance to the third round where she will have the virtually impossible task of beating another Malaysian — world No. 1 Nicol David. Nicol had earlier made short work of Sri Lankan Damindha Udangawe 11-2, 11-4, 11-2.

In archery, the Indian recurve archers dominated the ranking round at the Yamuna Sports Complex. Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar occupied the top two positions after returning scores of 679 points and 676, respectively, after two rounds of 36 arrows over a distance of 70m.

Canada’s Jason Lyon was third with 674. India’s third entry Tarundeep Rai finished at 13th with 647 points.

The Indian men’s team took the top spot with a total of 2002. England and Malaysia followed suit with 1971 each. England grabbed the second spot after a tie-breaker.

Deepika Kumari topped the women’s ranking round with a total of 662 points. Dola Banerjee was second with 658 while Naomi Anne Folkard of England came third with 642. India’s third entry Laishram Bombayla Devi was ninth with 624. In the team event, India topped with 1944 points. England were second with 1904 and the Australians were third with 1841.

In table tennis, the Indian women’s team lost 2-3 against New Zealand after winning their opening round match against Sri Lanka 3-0 in the morning. Strong contenders New Zealand had won their opening round match against Ghana 3-0. While the Indian women lost, the men’s team had an easy outing against minnows Vanuatu 3-0 without their star player Sharath Kamal.

In women’s hockey, the hosts had to split points after being held to a 1-1 draw by a lowly Scotland at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

The Indians fought back from a 0-1 deficit through Jasjeet Kaur Handa (45th minute) after Scotland took the lead in the third minute from a Holly Gram field goal.

In swimming, the Indian men made the maiden entry to the final round when the quartet of Virdhawal Khade, Anshul Kothari, Arjun Jayaprakash and Aaron D’Souza finished sixth in the morning heats to make the evening final where they finished in the same position clocking 3 mins, 27.14 secs.