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Indian shuttlers had a relatively good day in office at the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament in Jakarta on Wednesday, with the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa and the men's team of Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy progressing to the second round.
The pair of Jwala-Ashwini, gold medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2011 World Championships bronze-medallists, had to play out of their skins to prevail over the Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Ribka Sugiarto 21-7, 20-22, 21-10 in 39 minutes.
They will meet the Chinese combination of Yaqiong Huang and Jinhua Tang.
However, it wasn’t so difficult for the men's pair of Manu and Sumeeth Reddy, who beat Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Alvin Morada of the Philippines 21-13, 21-16.
A tough encounter awaits Manu-Sumeeth next as they play sixth seeds Sung Hyun Ko-Baek Cheol Shin of Korea.
There was disappointment, though, for the Indian squad as young Sameer Verma was beaten by two-time Olympic silver-medallist and second seed Lee Chong Wei 21-11, 21-13 in the opening round of the men's singles. With his exit the Indian challenge in singles ended.
Three-time champion and world No. 8 Saina Nehwal will meet Indonesian ace Fitriani Fitriani in the second round of the women's singles.
The eighth seeded India defeated world No. 23 Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 19-21, 21-15 in her opening match on Tuesday.
Image: Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa
Photograph: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images