World Junior Championship silver medallist Tanvi Sharma and Thailand Masters champion Devika Sihag registered comfortable wins to kick off their US Open campaign in style here on Thursday (IST). Tanvi defeated Yvonne Li of Germany 23-21, 21-16, while Devika beat Ines Lucia Castillo of Peru 21-14, 21-14 in the women’s singles first round.
In the first of the two all-Indian clashes, up-and-coming Rounak Chouhan defeated former world junior silver medallist S Sankar Muthusamy 23-21, 21-16. Fifth seed Kidambi Srikanth then dominated the match against compatriot D. Saneeth to win 21-14, 21-12 in just 30 minutes.
Also advancing to the next round were Rakshitha Sree in women’s singles and the mixed doubles combination of Dhruv Rawat and K Maneesha. Rakshitha defeated Tereza Svabikova of the Czech Republic 21-15, 21-8 while the seventh-seeded mixed doubles pairing of Rawat and Maneesha needed just 26 minutes to pack off Indonesia’s Wirawan Ihsan Adam and Serena Kani 21-15, 21-16.
On Day 1, women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made a winning start to their campaign after battling past Spain’s Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez to reach the second round. Treesa and Gayatri are the only Indian representatives in the women’s doubles draw.
The duo had returned to action at the Indonesia Open earlier this month after Treesa’s three-month-long rehabilitation from an injury. There will be no Indian entries in the men's doubles draw, as Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are out of action with Satwik continuing to recover from an injury he sustained during the Indonesia Open earlier this month.
Meanwhile, defending men’s singles champion Ayush Shetty will not return to defend the title he won at last year’s US Open. Another former Indian champion at the US Open, HS Prannoy, also skipped the meet.