PTI

New Delhi, Oct 9: Indians had a good day in office with as many as five shuttlers sailing into the second round, at the Bulgarian Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Sofia on Wednesday.

12th seed Ajay Jayaram defeated local favourite Vasil Paskov 21-8, 21-8 in 21 minutes, while qualifier Abhimanyu Singh beat another local player Krasimir Yankov 21-19, 21-16 in 28 minutes.

In another men's singles first round, seventh seed Indian P Kashyap beat Russian Gordey Kosenko 21-19, 21-15 in a 37-minute contest.

However, it was curtains for Sourabh Verma, who went down 14-21, 15-21 to fourth seed Yu Hsin Hsieh of Taiwan in 26 minutes.

In the women's singles, Shruti Kurian defeated Gabriela Stefanikova of Slovakia 21-10, 21-17 in just 26 minutes, while fifth seed Aditi Mutatkar thrashed local favourite Dimitria Popstoykova 21-14, 21-6.

Meanwhile, India's eighth seeded doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas will take on Russian duo of Andrey Ivanov and Sergey Shumilkin, while in women's double third seed pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian will cross swords with local pair of Bistra Maneva and Victoria Zheleva.

Also mixed double pair of Jwala Gutta and D Viju, who won the Bitburger Open title last week, will take the challenge of local pair of Aleksei Konakh and Alesia Zaitsava.