Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Tanvi Sharma registered victories in their respective singles opening-round matches at the China Masters on Wednesday.
Srikanth defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen 21-16, 21-15 to advance in the men’s singles competition.
Seventeen-year-old Tanvi, a World Junior Championships silver medallist, also progressed after overcoming world No. 40 Amalie Schulz of Denmark 21-16, 21-17 in straight games.
India also made a winning start in mixed doubles, with Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto defeating Tonkid Saeheng and Tonrug Saeheng 21-8, 21-9 in their opening-round encounter.
However, Commonwealth Games champion and Paris Olympics 2024 semifinalist Lakshya Sen suffered a first-round exit, losing to Victor Lai 14-21, 7-21.
Devika Sahag also bowed out after going down to Bulgaria’s Kaloyana Nalbantova 18-21, 15-21 in the women’s singles opening round.
Meanwhile, rising Indian shuttler Unnati Hooda had exited the tournament on Tuesday after losing to world No. 12 Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 10-21, 18-21 in 37 minutes at the Shenzhen Sports Centre Gymnasium, according to Olympics.com.
Kim quickly established a 4-0 lead in the opening game and extended it to 11-3 at the interval before closing out the game comfortably.
Hooda responded strongly in the second game, taking an early 3-0 lead. Kim fought back to move 7-5 ahead, although Hooda briefly regained the advantage at 15-14.
The Indian levelled the scores at 18-18 after trailing 16-18, but Kim won the final three points to seal the match.
It was the first meeting between Hooda and Kim, who won the Macau Open title in June and was part of South Korea’s gold-medal-winning women’s team at the 2023 Asian Games.
