Indian shuttlers had a good day in office at the BWF World Championships with the men's singles trio of Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and H S Prannoy advancing to the second round in Basel, Switzerland, on Monday.
Former World No 1 Srikanth, who has not won a title at the BWF World Tour in the last 22 months, staved off a spirited a challenge from Ireland's Nhat Nguyen, winning 17-21, 21-16, 21-6 in a match that lasted an hour and six minutes to join Praneeth and Prannoy in the second round.
Srikanth, who is coming back after recovering from a knee problem, will face Israel's Misha Zilberman.
World No 19 and the latest to be conferred the Arjuna Award, Praneeth defeated 66th-ranked Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada 21-17, 21-16 in a first round clash lasting 39 minutes.
In another men's singles first round match, World No 30 Prannoy, who is on a comeback trial after recovering from a stomach problem, fought back to beat 93rd-ranked Eetu Heino of Finland 17-21, 21-10, 21-11.
He will face Chinese legend Lin Dan, now seeded 11th, in the second round. Prannoy had defeated Lin Dan at the 2018 Indonesia Open and 2015 French Open.
India also got a favourable result in the women's doubles with Meghana Jakkampudi and S Poorvisha Ram getting past the Guatemala pair of Diana Corleto Soto and Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor 21-10, 21-18 to enter the second round.
P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal have received a bye in the opening round and will start their campaign on Wednesday.
Indian doubles pairs, including Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, will begin their campaign on Tuesday.
