Saina Nehwal and former World No. 1 K. Srikanth entered the second round, but P. Kashyap made an early exit from the Thailand Open Super 1000 tournament here on Wednesday.
Saina got the better of Selvaduray Kisona of Malaysia 21-15, 21-15 in the opening round to set up a clash with Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
Saina, who was first forced to withdraw from the event for positive COVID-19 results on Tuesday but later returned a negative test, thanked the Badminton World Federation officials and doctors for allowing her to participate.
Earlier in the day, Srikanth took just 31 minutes to prevail over compatriot Sourabh Verma 21-12, 21-11 in men's singles, but Kashyap was forced to retire midway through his opening-round match against Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada. Kashyap was traiing 8-14 in the third game when he chose to retire after puling his calf muscle. He had lost the first game 9-21 before making a comeback to take the second 21-13.
Srikanth will next play eight seed Zii Jia Lee of Malaysia, who defeated another Indian H.S. Prannoy 13-21, 21-14, 21-8.
Sameer Verma, too, made a first round exit. He lost 15-21, 17-21 to Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia.
In men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came from behind to defeat the South Korean pair of Kim Gi Jung and Lee Yong Dae 19-21, 21-16, 21-14.
Other results (first round):
Men’s doubles: Ong Yew Sin & Teo Ee Yi (Mas) bt Arjun Ramachandran & Dhruv Kapila 21-13, 8-21, 22-24; Weeraphat Phakjarung & Wongsathorn Thongkham (Tha) bt Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy 21-19, 21-14.
Mixed doubles: Chung Man Tang & Yong Suet Tse (Tpe) bt Sikki Reddy & Sumeeth Reddy 22-20, 21-17.
