Indian badminton saw mixed fortunes at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 on Tuesday.
While the experienced duo of Teresa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand secured a comfortable win in the women's doubles, all Indian contenders in the men's and women's singles qualification matches fell short.
Seeded seventh, Treesa and Gayatri, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists, dominated their first-round encounter against Huang Yu-Hsun and Liang Ting Yu of Chinese Taipei.
The Indians displayed sharp form, wrapping up the match in straight games with a score of 21-14, 21-10.
However, the story in the singles categories was less promising. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, fresh off his BWF Super 100 victory at the Odisha Masters, started strong.
He defeated Malaysia's Cheam June Wei but couldn't maintain momentum, losing to Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito in a close three-setter.
Youngster Ayush Shetty, a World Junior Championships bronze medallist, displayed promise with a win over compatriot Kartikey Gulshan Kumar.
However, his challenge ended against Thailand's Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul in another tightly contested encounter.
Both S Sankar Subramanian, a former World Junior Championships silver medallist, and Tanya Hemanth in the women's singles bowed out in the first round of qualification.
The experienced women's doubles pair of Palak Arora and Unnati Hooda couldn't overcome Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun of Chinese Taipei.
While Treesa and Gayatri's win offers a promising start for the Indian doubles campaign, the exits in the singles qualifiers highlight the need for continued development in those categories.
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