Fifth-seeded Sindhu had to fight it out against Japan's Aya Ohori as she came from a game behind to win 11-21, 21-15, 21-15 in a match that lasted almost an hour.
In the men's singles event, world no 9 Kidambi Srikanth found it relatively easy as he went past Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-14, 21-13 in the contest that lasted for 38 minutes.
Earlier on Tuesday, India had a good opening day as two doubles pairs entered the second round of the competition. The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin 21-19 18-21 21-19 in their opening match. The world no. 20 Indian pair will face Indonesian top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo next.
In the mixed doubles event, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy edged out Netherlands' Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek 25-23, 16-21, 21-19 to set up second-round contest against top seeds Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong of China.
However, there was disappointment in the women's doubles event as Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy went down 20-22, 22-20, 20-22 to Malaysian combination of Vivian Hoo and Yap Cheng Wen.