Gimcheon: PV Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap, RMV Gurusaidutt and women's doubles pair Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa on Wednesday made winning starts to their campaigns at the $200,000 Badminton Asia Championships being held in the Gimcheon Indoor Stadium.
Sindhu, India's best bet at the continental event, beat Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi 21-15, 15-21, 21-18 in exactly an hour to take a 2-0 lead in career meetings. However, in the second round, the women's singles World No.10 faces a tough challenge against Japanese Eriko Hirose, who has a 3-0 lead over Sindhu.
In men's singles, Kashyap did not have to break sweat to overcome Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat 21-14, 21-17 in 35 minutes - his second victory over Goh in as many meetings. The Hyderabadi will take on Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals.
Gurusaidutt also progressed to the last 16, edging past Thai shuttler Phetpradab Khosit 22-20, 23-21 in 44 minutes. The youngster will battle another Chinese Taipei shuttler Wang Tzu Wei in their first ever match.
Jwala and Ashwini also got off to a good start as they beat Singaporean pair Fu Mingtian and Neo Yu Yan Vanessa 21-18, 21-15 in 38 minutes.
India's only seeded player in the tournament Kidambi Srikanth had to bite the dust as the seventh seed went down to China's two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan. 'Super' Dan needed only 32 minutes to beat the Indian 21-7, 21-14.
Later, Malaysia's Low Juan Shen and Heg Nelson Wei Keat took care of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy 16-21, 21-13, 22-20 in a men's doubles playoff while Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra also lost out to Chinese pair Zhang Wen and Wang Yilv 18-21, 19-21 in 42 minutes.
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