The 3rd seed Indian scripted a convincing 21-14, 21-14 win over eighth seeded Busanan Ongbamrungphan in 38 minutes to extend her dominating head-to-head record against the Thai to 14-1.
PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen sailed into the second round but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth on a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament.
Sen had progressed to the men's singles quarter-finals on Thursday after beating France's Thomas Rouxel 21-18, 21-17 in 53 minutes.
Sen will now face either Ireland's Nhat Nguyen, who beat Kidambi Srikanth on Wednesday, or Netherland's Mark Caljouw.
Meanwhile, the Indian team, including Olympic hopefuls Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth, on Sunday left for Thailand to compete in back-to-back BWF World Tour Super 1000 events.
Defending Champion Lakshya had to withdraw from SaarLorLux Open in Saarbrucken after his father-cum-coach D K Sen returned a positive test for the virus.
The fifth seed Indian took 33 minutes to get the better of his Canadian opponent 21-15 21-14 in the men's singles second round match of the Super 750 tournament, Lakshya, goes down 21-15 7-21 17-21 to experienced local challenger Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghu.
The 19-year-old Indian, who had claimed five titles including two Super 100 tournaments last year, produced a clinical performance to outwit Popov 21-9 21-15 to reach the second round.
Kidambi opens against world no 52 Toby Penty of England in the second half of the draw while Shubhankar Dey and Ajay Jayaram will look to go deep into the tournament.
Rest of the Indian squad, including Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Shubhankar Dey, flew with Air France from Delhi on Thursday night.
With the world in lockdown to contain the deadly disease, Lakshya too is enduring the uncertain times within the confines of his apartment, near the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru.
Sindhu next meets the winner of the round of 16 match between fourth-seeded Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark.
World No. 31 Lakshya dished out a clinical performance to notch up a sensational 21-18 22-20 win over world no. 7 Jonatan in the second singles to keep India in the hunt after B Sai Praneeth retired following a 6-21 thrashing by Anthony Ginting in the opening game of the first singles
The biggest upset of the day for India was the ouster of the world number 12 men's doubles duo of Rankireddy and Shetty, who fought hard before going down to world number 19 Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia.
After two silvers and two bronze medals, Sindhu finally fetched India its first ever World Championships gold in the sport but spent rest of the year struggling for form.
Three-time former champion Saina, who has been battling illness and injuries, is going through a bad patch, having lost six times in the first round this season.
Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen won his fourth title in three months as he cruised to victory in the Scottish Open.
Lakshya Sen was at his best as he notched up a comfortable 21-14 21-15 win over Victor Svendsen in the title clash that lasted for 34 minutes.
PV Sindhu beat Riya Mookerjee 21-16 21-7 in 28 minutes to progress to the semifinals while Lakshya Sen beat Aryamann Tandon 21-14 21-10 in the quarters of the National Badminton Championships.
Lakshya, who won an Asian Junior Championship and bronze at World Junior Championship last year, completed a clinical 21-10 21-10 win over Arintap Dasgupta of West Bengal.
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