Madrid, Sep 21 (Xinhua) India's Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave Wednesday entered the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships here.

Rupesh and Thomas defeated Malaysia's Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama and Albertus Susanto 21-17, 19-21, 21-19 in 46 minutes in a second round clash.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Rupesh and Thomas could face top seeds Hanfeing Fu and Yun Cai of China. The Chinese pair is scheduled to play the Welsh pair Matthew Hughes and Martyn Lewis in the second round.

In the singles, India's Trupti Murgunde lost 21-6, 16-21, 12-21 to Japanese Eriko Hirose in a second round match.

In the women's doubles, Murgunde and B.R. Meenakshi proved a mismatch against China's Yawen Zhang and Yili Wie as they lost 2-21, 7-21 in 15 minutes Tuesday night.

The other Indian women pair Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian is scheduled to play Kumiko Ogura and Reiko Shiota.

Both defending champions Taufik Hidayat, in the men's section, and Xie Xingfang, in the women's, got off to an ominous start with first-round wins Tuesday.

Hidayat beat Zhang Wei from Hong Kong 21-17, 21-17 before claiming that his top priority this season is to win the Asian Games gold instead of the World Championships.

"My target is the Asian Games in December but I will try my best to defend my title here," he said.

The 25-year-old Indonesian cherishes quadrennial Olympic and Asian Games more than the annual World Championships.

"I care less about the World Championships which is held every year. For me, the Olympic Games and Asian Games are more attractive, as they are held every four years," he once said.

Xie, No. 3 seed, found herself in some trouble with the wind when playing Kati Tolmoff from Estonia.

"I could not play my game due to the wind around the court," the 25-year-old Chinese girl said after winning 21-14, 21-14.

The men's fifth seed Chen Hong also advanced to the second round after beating Pedro Yang from Guatemala.

The men's top four seeds -- Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, Lin Dan of China, Chen Jin of China and Peter Gade of Denmark -- and the women's first two seeds -- Zhang Ning from China and Xu Huaiwen from Germany -- were all awarded first-round byes.