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The BWF World Championships 2017 kicked off on Monday at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, with some of the world's top shuttlers securing their berths in the second rounds across the five categories. It was a great day for India, which has sent its largest-ever contingent to the tournament this year, as seven out of eight matches ended in wins for the Indian shuttlers.
In the men's singles, two shuttlers from the nation were on display and sailed through to the next round with comfortable victories. Kidambi Srikanth, who is one of the favourites for the crown, was up against Russia's Sergey Sirant, who had recently won the Russian GP and was looking to create an upset.
Srikanth pulled through with a comfortable win though, winning in straight sets and not letting his guard down. It took him a total of 29 minutes to defeat the Russian southpaw, with the scoreline reading 21-13 21-12. Next up for the Indian will be French shuttler Lucas Corvee, who is ranked 55 in the world.
The other shuttler in action tonight was Sameer Verma, who is the only unseeded Indian in the draw, and he too recorded a comfortable win over Spain's Pablo Abian. He won the first game convincingly at 21-8, with the second one cut short at 17-4, as the Spaniard could not continue.
Also Read: World Badminton Championships 2017: Complete schedule for Indian players
Rituparna and Tanvi Lad advance to second round
In the women's singles, it was the two youngsters in the form of Tanvi Lad and Rituparna Das opening their campaigns. The former produced a fine performance to claim victory over Chloe Birch of England, coming from behind after losing the first game.
The match lasted 56 minutes with the Indian falling behind early, as Birch won the first game 21-17. Lad fought back to take the second 21-10 before holding her nerve to clinch the decider 21-19. She will now face Sung Ji Hyun, the second seed, in the second round.
Das went through to the next round as well as her Finnish opponent Airi Mikkela withdrew in just the second minute of the match. The world number 46 will now face local favourite Kirsty Gilmour in the next round.
Atri-Reddy crash out, strong show in women's and mixed doubles
In the women's doubles section, the pairing of Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil defeated the Ukrainian pairing of Natalya Voytsekh and Yelyzaveta Zharka. The match lasted 43 minutes as the Indian duo recorded a fine 21-15 21-18 win.
There was disappointment in the men's doubles section as the unseeded pairing of Manu Atri and Sumeeth Reddy lost out in straight games. They were up against Chung Eui Seok and Kim Dukyong, with the Korean pair winning 22-20 21-11.
The mixed doubles action saw the young pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and K Maneesha defeat Tam Chun Hei and NG Tsz Yau from Hong Kong 24-22 21-17 in 44 minutes.
Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan were victorious as well, taking 49 minutes to oust Chinese Taipei pair Lu Ching Yao and Chiang Kai Hsin 21-15 13-21 21-18.
Tuesday features 10 matches involving Indian shuttlers, as singles stars PV Sindhu, Ajay Jayaram and Sai Praneeth kickstart their campaigns.
