India's top singles player Ankita Raina got off to a flying start as Rutuja Bhosale battled past bottom seed Aruzhan Sagandikova to reach the women's singles pre-quarterfinals at the Asian Games on Monday.
Raina did not drop a game in their second-round encounter, needing just 51 minutes to dispatch 17-year-old Sabrina Olimjonova of Uzbekistan 6-0, 6-0.
Raina, 198 in the singles rankings and bronze medalist in the 2018 series, will now face Hong Kong's Adithya P Karunaratne for the last eight spots.
Sagandikova is ranked as high as 746, but it was far from easy for Bhosale, who needed two hours and minutes to see off her Kazakh rival 7-6 (2), 6-2.
The first round itself lasted one hour and 16 minutes as Bhosal, ranked 336, had to push hard for the win. The 13th-ranked Indian's next opponent is fourth-ranked left-hander Alex Eala of the Philippines.
In the men's singles, Ramkumar Ramanathan didn't have to move a tendon to make it to the next round. His competitor Sunatullo Isroilov from Tajikistan did not appear and walked to the Indian.
Ramkumar then reached the men's doubles quarterfinals with his runner-up partner Saketh Mynen, defeating the Indonesian pair of Ignatius Anthony Susanto and David Agung Susanto 6–3, 6–2 in 68 minutes.