India's badminton sensations Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu hardly had any difficulties on their way to reach the last-16 of Yonex Sunrise India Open here on Wednesday.
However, Sameer Verma produced the biggest shock of the day, stunning the World No 5 Son Wan Ho of South Korea 21-17, 21-10 in the round-of-32.
Barring few anxious moments in the second game, India's 2012 london Olympics bronze medallist Saina had a comfortable outing against Chinese Taipei's Chia Hsin lee during her 21-10, 21-17 victory here on Wednesday.
But after the match, former World No 1 Saina said her focus is not reclaiming the top spot, but to keep winning tournaments.
"I have already been world number one. It hardly makes any difference. For me the only point is to win tournaments. World No 1 is not what I am thinking about. When I was world number 30, I won tournaments. So its matter of winning tournaments that will give me more satisfaction than being World No 1," she explained.
On her round-of-32 victory, Saina said it was tricky playing her Chinese Taipei opponent, since CH lee is also a doubles player.
"First game was good. Second game I gave away seven points. The score should have been 21-10, 21-10. She is tricky because she is also a doubles player so sometimes some shorts which you think might take some time for the singles players but the doubles players play it very quickly in the net. So it is little tricky to play with someone who also play doubles," she told reporters after the match.
However, World No 8 Nehwal feels all these matches will give her more confidence as the tournament goes on. "All these matches will definitely give confidence to play against the tough players when you are in the crucial situations about how to pull out the matches and how to not make the mistakes again in the next rounds. Movement wise I'm good. Knee is feeling good," she added.
Talking about her rehabilitation, Saina said: "I have to lose weight as it would help my knee. When I do my strengthening I also have to lose the weight for my knee. It's in process. I have lost say 4-5 kilos already. I have to lose another two kilos."
Asked about a likely clash with Rio Games silver medallist Sindhu in the quarterfinals, Saina said: "Well, let's see. The girl (Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand) I am playing next, she is a good player. Played against her in the Malaysia finals. Of course Sindhu is playing extremely well. That's why she played in the Olympic finals in Rio. Carolina, Ratchanok, Tai Tzu all these are very tricky players now to play against because they are all in top 10."
Meanwhile, Sindhu, who eased past compatriot Arundhati Pantawane 21-17, 21-6 here on Wednesday, said her primary focus is on last-16 match against the Japanese Saena Kawakami on Thursday and not on a possible showdown with Newhal.
"My focus is for tomorrow match, not focusing much for quarterfinal right now, just going step-by-step. If it goes well yeah me and Saina will play. So last time also we played in Delhi - that was in PBl. So we are going to fight and only one can win so yeah both of us are going to fight on court. It's going to be a good match," she said.
Elsewhere, Sameer has got himself a relatively comfortable last-16 clash against the unseeded Hu Yun of Hong Kong as a result of his remarkable victory against fourth seeded Son Wan Ho in a 45-minute contest.
"I am just taking one game at a time, and do not want to be complacent about facing an unseeded opponent. I am just looking forward to tomorrow's match," an ecstatic Sameer said after the win.
The day became even better for Verma brothers as Sameer's elder brother Sourabh also reached the second round with a 21-13, 21-16 win over compatriot HS Prannoy.
In other matches, B Sai Praneeth, who played against Kento Nishimoto of Japan, had to fight it out for three grueling games before coming out on top.
Kidmabi Srikanth got the better off his Chinese opponent Jun Peng Zhao 21-19, 21-16 in straight games. Incidentally, Peng was the same guy who had beaten Srikanth in the opening round of this year's All England Superseries Premier. Srikanth will now face-off against top seeded Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, who defeated Ajay Jayaram 23-21, 21-17.
Earlier in the day, Rituparna Das, World No 53, got the better off Mei Hui Chiangn 19-21, 21-15, 21-19. She will next face Spain's Carolina Marin.