New Delhi: The Indian mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto made a winning start to their BWF World Championships campaign on Wednesday, defeating Leong Iok Chong and Ng Weng Chi of Macao in the round of 32.

The 15th-seeded Indians, who had received a bye in the opening round, won 21-11, 21-11 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. They are now India’s only remaining representatives in mixed doubles after Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde lost a hard-fought match to Canada’s Jonathan Bing Tsan Lai and Crystal Lai 22-20, 19-21, 17-21. Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh also exited after a close contest against Turkey’s Emre Sonmez and Yasemen Bektas, going down 21-16, 29-30, 22-24.

Dhruv and Tanisha, playing their second BWF World Championships, will carry India’s mixed doubles hopes into the third round. The duo, who exited in the quarterfinals at the 2025 championships in Paris, will next face the sixth-seeded Chinese pair of Guo Xin Wa and Chen Fang Hui. They have previously won the 2023 Odisha Masters Gold and taken silver at the 2024 Syed Modi International, and reached a career-high World No. 15 ranking as a pair in May 2025.

Later in the day, in women’s singles, former champion P.V. Sindhu was scheduled to play Wen Yu Zhang of Canada, while Unnati Hooda was set to face 13th seed Michelle Li of Canada. In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen aimed to build on his opening-round win against Garret Tan of the United States, and Ayush Shetty, who eliminated defending champion Shi Yu Qi in the first round, was to meet Dumindu Abeywickrama of Sri Lanka. The men’s doubles pair of M.R. Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan was drawn against 15th seeds Kang Min Hyuk and Ki Dong Ju of Korea.

Earlier on Day 2, India’s top women’s doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly upset 16th seeds Allison Lee and Lauren Lam with another solid performance.