P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal began their All England Championships campaign with easy straight-game wins over their respective opponents in the women's singles in Birmingham on Wednesday. Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth were the only Indian men's singles players to make the second round as well.
Sixth-seed Sindhu beat Zhi Yi Wang of China 21-18 21-13 in her first round match that lasted 42 minutes, while Saina defeated Beatriz Corrales of Spain 21-17 21-19 in 38 minutes.
Sindhu faces unseeded Sayaka Takahashi of Japan in the second round. Saina, who reached the All-England final in 2015, takes on second-seeded Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in her second round tie.
If Sindhu and Saina win their respective second round matches, they will face each other in the quarterfinals.
In men's singles, Lakshya Sen had little trouble getting past compatriot Sourabh Verma, beating him 21-17 21-7 in 33 minutes. Kidambi Srikanth also notched up a straight-sets win over Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand, beating him 21-18 21-14. B Sai Praneeth lost to top seed and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen 20-22 11-21 in a first round match that lasted 48 minutes.
H S Prannoy went down fighting to last week's German Open winner Thai player Kunlavut Vitidsarn 15-21 22-24 in 56 minutes while Sameer Verma also lost to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 18-21 11-21 in a 41-minute opening match. Parupalli Kashyap lost 11-21 18-21 to fifth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia. In women's singles, late entrant Aakarshi Kashyap went down fighting, losing 18-21 18-21 to Michelle Li of Canada.
In men's doubles, fifth seeded Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Scottish pair of Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall 21-17 21-19 in 38 minutes. They face the German duo of Mark Lamfuss and Marvin Seidel in the second round, who defeated the other Indian men's doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala 21-16 21-19 in just 37 minutes.
M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost 21-15 12-21 18-21 to second seed Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
In women's doubles, Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand made it to the second round with a 17-21 22-20 21-14 victory over the Thailand pair of Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard in one hour and seven minutes. They face the sixth-seeded Indonesian pair of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in the second round.
It was curtains for Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy however, as they suffered an early exit at the hands of Japanese duo Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi, losing 9-21 13-21. Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram barely put up a fight against Supissara Paewsampran and Puttita Supajirakul of Thailand, losing 5-21 3-21. Srivedya Gurazada paired up with American Ishika Jaiswal, but the duo lost to Canadian pair Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai 9-21 4-21.
(with inputs from PTI)