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Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stormed into the second round of the women’s singles in the Syed Modi International Super 300 badminton tournament after a dominating victory over compatriot Tanya Hemanth, in Lucknow, on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad, who lost in the semi-finals at the India Open Super 500 last week, won 21-9, 21-9, at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium.
A former World champion, Sindhu will square off against the USA's Lauren Lam, who got past a fighting Ira Sharma 15-21, 21-16, 21-16.
In other women's singles matches, Samiya Imad Farooqui, who won the Bulgarian International and finished runners-up at the Polish Open last year, overcame stiff resistance from Shruti Mundada, winning 17-21, 21-11, 21-10, while Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka, a quarter-finalist in the 2018 edition, trounced Anjana Kumari 21-9, 21-12 in all-Indian matches.
Samiya will square off against compatriot Kanika Kanwal, who saw off the USA's Disha Gupta 21-15, 16-21, 21-6, while Sai will cross swords with Aakarshi Kashyap, who reached the quarter-finals at the India Open.
Prerana Neeluri, Smit Toshniwal, Anupama Upadhyaya, Kriti Bharadwaj also entered the second round of the women's singles.
Thailand’s title contender Supanida Katethong, who defeated Sindhu in the semi-finals of the India Open Super 500 event last week, and fifth seeded Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya also entered the second round.
While left-handed Katethong, seeded sixth, beat Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-13, 21-13, Kosetskaya defeated Vaidehi Choudhari 21-16, 21-10 in another match.
In the men's singles, Kaushal Dharmamer, Chirag Sen, Mithun Manjunath and Raghu Mariswamy made winning starts to their respective campaigns.
While Kaushal stunned Singapore's Jia Heng Jason Teh 14-21, 21-11, 21-16, Chirag, the 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 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.
The seventh seed Indian pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela brushed aside Mahek Nayak and Saumya Singh 21-1, 21-4 in the women's doubles competition.
The fourth seeded men's doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also reached the second round.