Top Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth made great begins to their crusade, advancing to the second round of the Indonesia Open with contrasting wins at the BWF World Tour Super 1000 competition in Jakarta on Wednesday (July 17).
Revived following a month-long break from a hectic BWF calendar, Sindhu and Srikanth beat Japanese shuttlers Aya Ohori and Kenta Nishimoto in women's and men's singles individually.
Fifth seed Sindhu, who is searching for her first title of the period, fought off a test from Ohori with an 11 21-15 21-15 win, while eighth seed Srikanth, who had entered the finals at India Open this year, beat Nishimoto 21-14 21-13 out of 38 minutes.
While Sindhu extended her stranglehold over Ohori with seventh straight triumph, it was Srikanth's fifth win over Nishomoto, who had crushed the Indian just once in their six meetings.
While World No 5 Sindhu will confront either Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt or Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin next, World No 9 Srikanth meets the champ of the clash between France's Brice Leverdez and Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus.
B Sai Praneeth, who had achieved the Swiss Open final this year, bowed out of the competition after losing 15 21-13 10-21 to Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent, a rival against whom he had a 2-2 straight count before the match.
