India endured a mixed outing on the opening day of the Canada Open Super 300 as veteran shuttler Kidambi Srikanth was forced to retire midway through his first-round match, while Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap kept the country's hopes alive by advancing to the second round in women's singles.
The tournament proved disappointing for the Indian contingent overall, with only two of the nine singles players progressing beyond the opening hurdle.
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Srikanth retires midway through opening-round clash
Fresh off his runner-up finish at the US Open Super 300 last week, Srikanth's campaign came to an unfortunate end after the former World Championship silver medallist retired during his first-round encounter against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia.
The Indian shuttler trailed 10-11 in the opening game when he consulted coach B Sai Praneeth before deciding to withdraw due to fitness concerns.
Meanwhile, Aakarshi Kashyap registered a comfortable 21-14, 21-12 victory over France's Anna Tatranova to book a second-round clash against fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the United States.
Tanya Hemnath also progressed after defeating USA's Disha Gupta 21-16, 21-18 and will next take on Japan's Riko Gunji.
Indian challenge suffers multiple first-round exits
Apart from Tanya and Aakarshi, the remainder of the Indian contingent failed to make it past the opening round. Fifth seed Devika Sihag, who won her maiden BWF Super 300 title at the Thailand Masters earlier this year, suffered a straight-game defeat against Chinese Taipei's Tung Ciou-Tong.
Rakshitha Ramraj, Shriyanshi Valishetty and Anmol Kharb also bowed out despite spirited performances in their respective matches.
In the men's singles draw, Saneeth Dayanand and Sankar Subramanian were eliminated in the opening round, while India's lone men's doubles pair of Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana also exited the tournament after losing their first-round match.
With only Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap remaining in the singles competition, India's hopes at the Canada Open Super 300 now rest firmly on the women's duo.