Fifth seed Sindhu beat Gregoria 22-20 21-18. The Olympic silver medallist will now face Korea’s An Se Young next. World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth also made it to the second round beating the legendary Lin Dan 21-14, 21-17. The Hyderabad shuttler is likely to meet World No 1 and two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan next.
Thailand Open champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also made a good start to their men’s doubles campaign, beating Korean pair of Kim Gi Jung and Lee Yong Dae 24-22, 21-11.
Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap failed to cross the opening round after losing 13-21, 12-21 to Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin in the men’s singles. National champion Sourabh Verma also made an early exit after going down 21-19, 11-21, 17-21 to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.