JOIN USFourth seed Saina defeated Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand 21-17, 21-10 in a 31-minute women’s singles match to set up a second round clash with Mingtian Fu of Singapore.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist P Kashyap also reached the second round after notching up a 19-21, 21-14, 21-14 victory over Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men’s singles competition.
India’s top mixed-doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta too crossed the first hurdle, beating Shintaro Ikeda and Reiko Shiota 22-20, 21-15.
World Championship bronze medallist, Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa also didn’t break much sweat as they dispatched Chinese Taipei’s Hsin Yun Chang and Chia Wen Lai 21-8, 21-17 in just 20 minutes.
However, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas couldn’t get past sixth seeds Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia and suffered a 13-21, 12-21 defeat in a match that lasted just 21 minutes.