Ajay Jayaram in Round Two, Gutta, Ashwini advance too

The Indian contingent made a winning start at the Badminton World Championships here yesterday.

While Ajay Jayaram fought hard to advance into the second round of the men's singles, Delhi Commonwealth Games women's doubles gold medal-winning pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa cruised into Round Two.

Jayaram, making his maiden appearance in the Worlds,u00a0 took 40 minutes as he shocked 15th seed Kenichi Tago 21-12, 21-19 in Round One, while Gutta-Ponappa convincingly got past the Malaysian duo of Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana 21-9, 21-18 in 23 minutes in their opening round encounter.

However, in the men's doubles India's Pranav Chopra and tarun Kona went down without a fight to Chinese Taipei's Hung Ling Chen and Yu Lang Lin in just 23 minutes.

Today, India's P Kashyap takes on Germany's Dieter Domke in a men's singles first round clash, while Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas play Indonesia's Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan in a men's doubles Round One clash.

India's World No 6 Saina Nehwal, who got a first round bye, will be meeting Ireland's Chloe Maggi in a second round match tomorrow. Maggi beat Indonesia's Adrianti Firdasari 13-21, 24-22, 21-13 in a Round One match yesterday.