Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu scored easy victories on the opening day of the badminton competition at the Rio Olympics on Friday.
The London Olympics bronze medallist beat world No. 73 Brazilian Vicente Lohaynny 21-17, 21-17 in 39 minutes, while Sindhu, a two-time World Championships bronze winner, had things her way against Laura Sarosi of Hungary, winning 21-8, 21-9 in 27 minutes.
Saina will take on world No. 61 Maria Ulitina of Ukraine next in a Group G match on August 14, while Sindhu will play Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion Li Michelle of Canada the same day in Group M.
The 26-year-old Saina needed 20 minutes to win the opening game and a minute less for the second.
Sindhu hardly broke a sweat against the Hungarian, winning the first game in 13 minutes and the second in 14.
Earlier, the Indian combination of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 15-21, 10-21 to the world No. 1 Japanese pair of Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsumoto in their Group A opener.
They are up against the world No. 11 Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek in their second group match on Friday.
In the men's doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 13-21 to the world No. 2 Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
They meet the world No. 5 Chinese pair of Biao Chai and Wei Hong.
