Nanjing (China): P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth notched up contrasting wins to progress to the pre-quarterfinals, but world No. 11 H S Prannoy suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Brazilian Ygor Coelho to bow out of the World Championship here on Wednesday.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who had got a bye in the first round, opened her campaign with an easy 21-14, 21-9 win over Indonesia's Fitriani.
The 23-year-old Indian, who won the silver medal last year, will face Korean Sung Ji Hyun, a 2015 World Championship bronze medallist, in the next round.
Srikanth, seeded fifth, recovered from a slump during the hard-fought contest to see off Spain's Pablo Abian 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 in a second-round match that lasted 62 minutes.
The 25-year-old Indian, who had clinched four titles last year, will lock horns with Malaysia's Daren Liew, a former world No. 10, who had won the 2012 French Open Super Series.
"I started off well but made too many mistakes in the second. I was trying too many things and couldn't get going. May be the strategy I tried, I tried too many things and it didn't come off and I have to talk to my coach about it," Srikanth said.
"I should have avoided doing mistakes in the second game and I am concerned about that. The last 10 points, I got everything right. So hope to get things right in the next match," he added.
B Sai Praneeth also entered the next round after defeating Spain's Lus Enrique Penalver 21-18, 21-11 to set up a meeting with Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.
However, Prannoy and Sameer Verma bowed out of the tournament.
Prannoy, seeded 11th, couldn't hold on to the momentum after breezing through the opening game to lose 21-8, 16-21, 15-21 to Coelho, ranked 39th in the world.
Later, Sameer failed to get across former two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan, losing 17-21, 14-21 in a 45-minute match.
Doubles pairs bow out
It also turned out to be a disastrous day for the Indian doubles pairs as all of them lost their respective matches.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty did all the hard work but couldn't go the full distance, losing narrowly 18-21, 21-15, 16-21 to world No. 8 Denmark pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in men's doubles.
Ashwini Ponnapa and N Sikki Reddy were no match for second-seeded Japanese combination of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota, going down 14-21, 15-21 in the second round women's doubles event.
National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy waged a gallant battle before losing 24-22, 13-21, 16-21 to seventh seed Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko of Japan in men's doubles.
