Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stormed into the second round of the Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament with a dominating win over compatriot Tanya Hemanth in the women' singles competition in Lucknow on Wednesday. (More Badminton News)
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad, who lost in the semifinals at India Open Super 500 last week, thrashed Tanya 21-9 21-9 in a lop-sided contest at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium.
A former world champion, Sindhu will square off against USA's Lauren Lam, who managed to get past a fighting Ira Sharma 15-21 21-16 21-16.
In other women's singles matches, Samiya Imad Farooqui, who had won the Bulgarian International and finished runners-up at Polish Open last year, overcame a stiff resistance from Shruti Mundada 17-21 21-11 21-10, while Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka, a quarterfinalist in 2018 edition, trounced Anjana Kumari 21-9 21-12 in all-Indian matches.
Samiya will square off against compatriot Kanika Kanwal, who saw off USA's Disha Gupta 21-15 16-21 21-6, while Sai will cross swords with Aakarshi Kashyap, who had reached the quarterfinals at India Open.
Prerana Neeluri, Smit Toshniwal, Anupama Upadhyaya, Kriti Bharadwaj also entered the second round of women's singles.
In the men's singles, Kaushal Dharmamer, Chirag Sen, Mithun Manjunath and Raghu Mariswamy also made winning starts to their respective campaigns.
While Kaushal stunned Singapore's Jia Heng Jason Teh 14-21 21-11 21-16, Chirag, elder brother of Lakshya Sen, registered an easy 21-9 21-6 win over Ansal Yadav.
Mithun beat Alap Mishra 21-15 21-8 and Raghu edged out Siril verma 21-19 13-21 21-18 in another match.
Kaushal, who had won the Myanmar International series and Malvives International challenge in 2019, will meet Malaysian June Wei Cheam.
Chirag, who claimed the Kenya International title in 2020, faces Russian Sergey Sirant and Mithun is pitted against Malaysian Soong Joo Ven.
Raghu takes on France's Lucas Claerbout next. Lucas defeated Siddharth Pratap Singh 21-15 21-8 in 33 minutes.
Seventh seed Indian pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela brushed aside Mahek Nayak and Saumya Singh 21-1 21-4 in women's doubles competition.
Title contender Supanida Katethong, who had reached the finals of India Open Super 500 event last week, and fifth seeded Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya also entered the second round.
While left-handed Katethong, seeded sixth Thai, beat Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-13 21-13, Kosetskaya defeated Vaidehi Choudhari 21-16 21-10 in another match.
Fourth seeded men's doubles pair of M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also reached the second round.
