The men's duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, Kidambi Srikanth and the combination of Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto advanced in the individual section of the Asian Games badminton on Monday.
Injuries continued to haunt the Indians as the men's doubles team of MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila and the mixed duo of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy retired.
World No. 21 Srikanth defeated No. 81 Duc Phat Le of Vietnam 21-10, 21-9. Satwik-Chirag had it easy against Chow Hin Long and Lui Chun Wai of Hong Kong 21-11, 21-16. Sai-Tanisha downed Leong Iok Chong and Weng Chi Ng of Macau 21-18, 21-14.
Satwik-Chirag should reach the quarterfinals, where they may run into Malaysians Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik or world champions Kang Min HyukSeo Seung Jae of Korea.
The Indians lost to the Koreans in the semifinals of the team event on Saturday but have defeated them thrice in the past and even at the semifinals of Indonesia Open this year. Srikanth faces Lee Yun Gyu of Korea next. If the world No. 21 beats Lee, he may run into second seed Kodai Naraoka.
Fifth seed HS Prannoy got a bye and plays Batdavaa Munkhbat of Mongolia on Tuesday. Prannoy, who skipped the team final against China on Sunday, is battling a minor injury he suffered during training. However, the team confirmed that he will compete in the event.
Sindhu begins against World No.21 Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei.
