Top seed R M V Gurusaidutt and second ranked B Sai Praneeth led the rest of the seeds, barring the notable exception of Subhankar Dey, into the second round of the USD 15,000 Tata Open India International Challenge badminton tournament, here today.
Guru, ranked 22nd in the world currently, took some time to warm up against an erratic Oscar Bansal before stepping on the pedal in the second game to carve out a facile 21-16 21-7 win in half an hour. He will now meet compatriot Mohit Kamat tomorrow for a place in the quarter-finals.
"I play the counter-attacking game rather than go on all out attack or defence," said Guru after his easy victory.
Sai Praneeth was too good for little known rival Mayank Behal and clinched the match in emphatic style for the loss of ten points in each of the two games.
Dey, seeded 7, was the lone casualty among seeded Indians as he was knocked out by former junior national champion Harsheel Dani in straight games, earning the winner a shot at Taipei's unseeded player Shen-Jie Yang.
Other Indian seeds to sail through to round two were No. 3 H S Prannoy, No. 4 Sourabh Varma, No. 6 Chetan Anand, former four-time national singles title winner, and No. 8 Anup Sridhar, a seasoned campaigner and Olympian.
In the women's singles, top seed Febby Angguni of Indonesia knocked out India's Aditi Mutatkar in short shrift to enter round two.
Two other Indian seeds to be dumped out early were second seed second seed Arundhati Pantawani and third seed Tanvi Lad.
Both crashed out after losing to unseeded Indonesian rivals Ana Rovita and Dinar Dyah Ayustine respectively with Arundhati, a former national champion, winning the opening game and then losing the other two.
Seventh seed Trupti Murgunde won an all-India first round tie against Sanskriti Chhabra to sail into round two.
Also through to the pre-quarters were 4th seed P C Thulasi, a former winner, and 8th seed Sayali Gokhale, an ex-national singles title holder.
