Indian shuttlers had an easy outing on the first day of the Indian Oil Asian Satellite Badminton championships in Jaipur, with Nikhil Kanetkar, Chetan Anand and Sachin Ratti sailing into the second round on Wednesday.
With almost all the top seeds enjoying a first round bye, Ratti took the honours in the morning session as he comfortably beat Malaysia's Jamaluddin Md Hazwan 15-13, 15-4.
Ratti, who has the distinction of beating All England champion Pulella Gopichand soon after he won the title in 2001, seemed rusty in the first game as he failed to hold on to a 12-6 lead.
The shuttler, who is coming back from a long injury lay-off, was able to regroup himself in time to take the first game. Thereafter, he never looked back as he took the second and the tie at 15-4.
In other matches, south-paw Kanetkar defeated Bangaldesh's Javed Mustafa 15-5, 15-2 while Chetan Anand got the better of countryman K Srinivasan 15-5, 15-2.
The other Indians ensuring a safe passage to the second round included JBS Vidyasagar, Arvind Bhat, Rohan Castelino, C M Shashidhar.
However, the up-and-coming Anup Sridhar was not so lucky as he went down to Thailand's Adisak Wiriyaphadungphong in a stiff encounter 15-4, 9-15, 14-17.
In the only match of the women's section, Manjusha Kanwar came back from a game deficit against qualifier Fatima Nazneen to prevail 3-11, 11-4, 11-2 and move into the next round.
