Undeterred by the early exit of their male counterparts, women shuttlers kept Indian hopes alive with both the singles as well as doubles players booking their place in the second round of the World Badminton Championship being held in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
National champion Aparna Popat beat Wan Ting Ling of Hong Kong 13-10, 11-8 while Trupti Murgunde got the better of Spain's Dolores Marco 9-11, 11-4, 11-9 in matches played on Monday, according to information received in Delhi.
Popat, who had a one-one record against her 25th ranked opponent, was in control of the 32-minute match from the very beginning.
Popat will face 10th seed Kyeung-Ran Kim of South Korea in the second round and could run into second seed Zhang Ning of China in the pre-quarter finals.
The women's pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien had beaten the Swedish pair of Johanna Persson and Elin Bergblom on the opening day to set up second round encounter with 16th seed Wen-Hsing Cheng and Yu-Chin Chien of Chinese Taipei.
