The Indian women's team, which won a historic bronze in the last edition in Incheon, lost the quarterfinal to the top-seeded and the most formidable team in the world.
Most athletes and their coaches have already acknowledged that the Asiad is going to be a different ball game than the Commonwealth given the presence of powerhouses such as China, Japan and Korea.
The players, the coaches, the support staff all of them put in efforts to be in good shape, said the Indian badminton chief coach as India take off for Jakarta.
Saina Nehwal dropped out of the top 10 while Kidambi Srikanth slipped two places to eighth in the latest BWF singles rankings released on Thursday.
Third seed Sindhu, facing Japanese Nozomi Okuhara, who defeated her at the previous edition's final, won 21-17, 21-19 in 58 minutes.
Saina, the 10th seed, was outclassed by Spanish seventh seed and two-time world champion Carolina Marin.
Saina showed amazing retrieving skills against Inthanon, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from an injury.
It took the star shuttler 35 minutes to ease past the Indonesian, dominating the proceedings and imposing authority to win 21-14, 21-9 to enter the pre-quarters.
The Olympic medallist Indian had received a bye in the first round.
While Saina skipped last week's Thailand Open, Sindhu made it to the final before losing to reigning World Champion Nozomi Okuhara, who climbed up two spots to 6th.
Memories of Sindhu and Okuhara battling in one of the greatest matches of all time during the summit clash in Glasgow last year is still fresh in the minds of badminton aficionados.
On a day when rest of the Indian shuttlers found the going tough, World No. 3 Sindhu continued her impressive run with a 21-16, 21-14 win over Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin.
Nehwal slumped to an 18-21, 15-21 straight set defeat to her Chinese opponent Chen Yufei in the second round of the Indonesia Open.
Olympic and world championship silver medallist Sindhu brushed aside the challenge of Malaysia's Ying Ying Lee 21-8, 21-14 to set up a clash Carolina Marin.
This is Saina's sixth straight loss to the Japanese in seven meetings.
The Indian has been drawn in a tough group and is meeting second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the second round.
The Gold Coast loss was Sindhu's third successive against the Saina, following defeats at the 2017 National championship final and 2018 Indonesia Open quarterfinal.
Union minister Rathore had started a fitness challenge where all would post their favourite workout and nominated Kohli, Saina Nehwal and Hrithik Roshan. Take a look.
After going down 1-4 to Canada in the opening match, Saina and Co. seemed to get their act together as they won all the matches, except the first women's doubles.
The tournament which is in its 27th year of existence will see the Asian championship bronze medallist Prannoy along with B Sai Praneeth in the men's singles.
Top News
Latest News
