Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy progressed to the second round of China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament with a straight game win over Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen in Shenzhen on Tuesday.
The 31-year-old, who had missed a couple of tournaments due to a back injury, registered a 21-18 22-20 win over the world number 12 Chen in the opening round, thus avenging the loss that he suffered last week in Japan.
The Asian Games bronze medallist will face either Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu or Denmark's Magnus Johannesen next. Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who are the reigning Asian Games gold medallists, comfortably prevailed 21-13 21-10 over England's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy to also make a good start.
The Commonwealth Games champions will meet Japan's Akira Koga and Taichi Saito next. Aakarshi Kashyap, the only Indian challenger in women's singles, found Zhang Yi Man of China too hot to handle, going down 12-21 14-21 in 33 minutes.