World No 11 HS Prannoy and world No 19 Sameer Verma coasted into the second round of the badminton world championships in Nanjing, China, on Monday after facile wins over New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota and France’s Lucas Corvee respectively.
Prannoy was barely out of second gear throughout the 28-minute match, with the world No 109 from New Zealand being no match for him. The 26-year-old Indian will now take on world No 39 Ygor Coelho of Brazil in the second round.
Verma then defeated Corvee 21-13, 21-10 to set up a second-round clash against five-time champion Lin Dan, who beat Mark Caljouw 21-14, 21-14.
The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa then defeated Denmark’s Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen 21-9, 22-20.
Earlier in the day, the Indian women’s doubles pair of Prajakta Sawant and Sanyogita Ghorpade failed to cross the first hurdle, as they were defeated by Turkey’s Bengisu Ercetin and Nazlican Inci 20-22, 14-21. However, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy progressed to the second round after beating Bulgaria’s Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev 21-13, 21-18.
Attri and Reddy are likely to face a stiffer test in the second round, where they will face seventh seeds Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko of Japan.
Chinese superstar Lin Dan and world No 1 Viktor Axelsen both made ominously fast starts. The 34-year-old Lin is seeking a sixth world title and in front of an adoring crowd in Nanjing he made light work of Caljouw.
“Super Dan” nonchalantly ended one long rally with a deft flick, the shuttlecock dipping just over the net to bring the arena to its feet in appreciation.
Axelsen, the top seed and reigning champion from Denmark, was even more emphatic, needing just 26 minutes to thrash Duarte Nuno Anjo of Portugal 21-8, 21-7 in a mismatch.
Also safely through on the first day of action was China’s third seed Shi Yuqi, a comfortable 21-13, 21-11 winner over Adam Mendrek of the Czech Republic.
The 24-year-old Axelsen, who has endured an injury-affected season, admitted afterwards to a bout of nerves – though it hardly showed.
“I don’t want to think too much [about my title defence], it is important for me,” Axelsen was quoted by the Xinhua news agency as saying.
“I need to be relaxed and see how far I can go. I was a little nervous today, but I feel good about the arena, it’s very big and easy for me to have a good control of the shuttle.”
Chen Long, the current Olympic champion and another realistic home hope, also eased through, 21-13, 21-15 against Taiwan’s Hsu Jen-hao.
With inputs from AFP