After a successful opening day in this Badminton World Federation competition, both maintained momentum in their title defence in the SL3 event on day two.

Bhagat, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion, beat England's William Smith 21-5, 21-3, while Joshi saw off France's Catherine Naudin 21-6, 21-4.

Having also won in the men's doubles SL3-SL4 with Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Manoj Sarkar today, Baghat is now expected to face Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara, the Paralympic mixed doubles bronze medallist whom he beat to reach the Tokyo 2020 final, in the semi-finals.

"It feels nice to be back here and play in Tokyo after the Paralympics," Baghat told the Paralympic Committee of India's news service.

"I have some great memories here, so I am confident of doing well in these courts.

"And I hope I can defend my double titles here."

Sarkar and fellow Indian Nitesh Kumar, double gold medallist at the National Championships, have also advanced to and will next face France’s Mathieu Thomas and England's Smith, respectively.

"I was a bit worried before the match as I had lost to my opponent before at the Asian Para Games," Sarkar said after beating Indonesia’s Maman Nurjaman 21-13, 21-10.

"Once I started playing, I got the momentum."

The highlight of the day, however, was SL3-SU5 doubles match between Suhas Yathiraj and Umesh Vikram Kumar and English pair of Bobby Griffin and Smith which was eventually won 21-13, 29-27 by the Indian pairing.

In the SL4 event, India's second seed Sukant Kadam finished his group with a 21-9, 21-10 win over Van Thuong Nguyen of Vietnam.

"There is only one target which is to come back with the gold medal and make India proud," said Kadam.

He will have his work cut out, however, as his team-mate Krishna Nagar, Paralympic gold medallist in the SH6 category, won his second group game with a 21-11, 21-17 scoreline against South Korea’s Lee Dae-sung.

Nagar face France's Fabien Morat in a last-16 match tomorrow.

Meanwhile, India’s world number one Manisha Ramadass and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan advanced to the quarter-finals in the women's singles SU5 and SH6 events.

India is fielding the biggest-ever contingent of 38 para shuttlers at the World Championships, which will culminate on Sunday (November 6).