World champion P. V. Sindhu made an impressive start at the All England Badminton Championships while Kidambi Srikanth lost the first round to 20-year-old Nhat Nguyen on Wednesday.
The Indian women's duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy and men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also progressed to the second round with straight game wins.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu gave a good account of herself as she covered the court well and dished out a disciplined performance to outwit world number 32 Soniia Cheah of Malaysia 21-11, 21-17 in 38 minutes.
The fifth seeded Indian will face Denmark's Line Christophersen next.
The Irish shuttler Nguyen started positively clinching the first game 21-10. Srikanth returned strongly by winning the second one at 21-15 but the youngster had the last laugh by closing the encounter at 21-12.
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Parupalli Kashyap lost his first round encounter to World No. 1 Kento Momota. He defeated the Indian in straight games 21-13, 22-20.
Earlier in the day, the Indian badminton contingent was cleared to participate in the tournament after the players, who had initially tested positive for COVID-19, returned negative in retests conducted by the Badminton World Federation.
Three Indian shuttlers and a support staff had tested positive on Tuesday while a few were awaiting confirmation.
( With inputs from PTI )
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