Australian Open: PV Sindhu, Sameer Verma make winning start

World No 5 Sindhu defeated Indonesia's Choirunnisa 21-14, 21-9 in a lop-sided contest in women's singles

Sydney: India had a good day in office with top shuttlers PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma progressing to the second round of the $150,000 Australian Open World Tour Super 300 tournament on Wednesday.

World No 5 Sindhu, a silver medallist at Rio Olympics and 2017 and 2018 World championship, defeated Indonesia's Choirunnisa 21-14, 21-9 in a lop-sided contest in women's singles.

The Indian will meet experienced Thai Nitchaon Jindapol next.

Sixth seed Sameer exacted revenge against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 21-15, 16-21, 21-12 in a thrilling opening round men's singles match. The Indian had lost to Lee at the Sudirman Cup last month.

Sameer Verma defeated Lee Zii Jia.

The 25-year-old from Madhya Pradesh, who had reached the semifinals at World Tour Finals, will square off against Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei in second round.Among others, former Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth, who had reached the finals at Swiss Open this year, beat Korea's Lee Dong Keun 21-16, 21-14, to set up a clash with second seed Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting next.

In men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated compatriots Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy 21-12, 21-16 to enter the second round.

The young duo will next fight it out against second-seeded Chinese pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen.

However, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 14-21, 13-21 to Korean combination of Baek Ha Na and Kim Hye Rin.