The Indian badminton team, led by Kidambi Srikanth, made a resounding start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games, thrashing minnows Maldives 3-0 in the opening match of the team competition, in Jakarta, on Sunday.
World No 8. Srikanth brushed aside Maldives' Hussein Zayan Shaheed Zaki 21-4, 21-5 in 18 minutes to give India a 1-0 lead.
World No. 11 H S Prannoy then took 21 minutes to outclass Mohamed Sarim 21-8, 21-6 and make it 2-0 in India's favour.
B Sai Praneeth, who had clinched the 2017 Singapore Open, then ended the challenge of Mohamed Ajfan Rasheed in just 22 minutes with a 21-7, 21-8 demolition as India wrapped up the contest 3-0.
The Indian men's team will next face hosts Indonesia tomorrow in the quarterfinals.
Indonesia, who received a first-round bye, boasts of good players such as Jonathan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the singles, while their doubles line-up comprise World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and World No. 9 Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
The women's team, led by Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu, will play formidable Japan in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye in the opening round.
Sharan-Thandi win tricky mixed doubles opener at Asian Games
Seventh seeds Karman Kaur Thandi and Divij Sharan of India defeated Filipino pairing of Marian Jane Capadocia and Alberto Jr Lim in a testing mixed doubles opener at the 18th Asian Games in Palembang.
Playing together for the first time, Thandi and Sharan eked out a 6-4, 6-4 win in a round of 32 match lasting 81 minutes at the Jakabaring Tennis Center.
Like Thandi and Sharan, the other Indians in the five categories too had a first round bye but they will be on court on Monday.
Captain and coach Zeeshan Ali was glad that Thandi and Sharan had a tough opening match.
"You don't want a 6-1, 6-1 result in the first match you are playing. It is good that they had a tough match. It will help them in the coming matches," Ali said.
The mixed doubles pairings were decided last minute following the sudden withdrawal of Leander Paes.
Rohan Bopanna and Ankita Raina are the other Indian pair in the mixed doubles.
Sharan also said it was a tricky opener.
"Karma had played with the guy on the junior circuit. We didn't know much about the girl. May be they did not have any pressure and played freely. They both had contrasting games. But the experience on the ATP circuit helped," said Sharan.
"We broke them at 4-4 in both the sets. It was a tough match and should give us momentum going forward."
Sharan and Boppana are the top seeds in the men's doubles. They will be playing their round of 32 match against the Indonesian combine of David Agung Susanto and Ignatius Anthony Susanto.
Also in action will be second seed in the men's singles, Ramkumar Ramanathan. The Indian should have a comfortable outing against Rifqi Fitriadi in the round of 32 match.
In the women's singles, sixth seed Raina will face Indonesian Beatrice Gumulya in the morning session tomorrow. Raina is taking part in all the women's events – singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
Seventh seed Thandi will open her singles against Mongolian Jargal Altansarnai.
Rowing: Om Prakash-Sawarn Singh top Heat 2 in doubles sculls
Om Prakash and Sawarn Singh topped Heat 2 in men's doubles sculls while Dattu Baban Bhokanal was second in Heat 1 of singles sculls in the rowing competition.
Prakash and Sawarn, who won a singles sculls bronze in Incheon Games four years ago, clocked 7:10.26 to emerge the fastest ahead of the Japanese pairing of Yamao Keita and Kuribara Tomokazu, who recorded 7:12.70.
Bhokanal was not at his best in the single sculls and finished second with 8:09.21 behind Japan's Ryuta Arakawa, who recorded 7:56.08. The Indian, who qualified for Rio Olympics, has been consistently clocking around seven minutes in the last one month.
In the men's pair heats, Malkeet Singh and Gurinder Singh were third fastest in Heat 1 with 7:37.20, behind the Chinese pair of Li Xiaoxiong and Zhao Jingbin (7:30.14), and Uzbekistan's Alisher Turdiev and Sardor Tulkinkhujaev (7:33.48).
Sanjukta Dung and Harpreet Kaur disappointed in women's pair Heat 1, finishing fifth and last with 9:02.88.
The quartet of Bhopal Singh, Jagvir Singh, Tejash Hanamant Shinde and Praney Ganesh Naukarkar were fourth fastest with 7: 01.20 in the lightweight four heats. Teams from China, Indonesia and Uzbekistan were first, second and third fastest respectively.