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Sindhu, who won the world championship in 2019 will be a huge miss for India.
Lee Chong Wei pulled out of the World Championship and the Asian Games owing to a respiratory disease.
Momota convincingly defeated China's highly promising Shi Yuqi 21-11, 21-13 in Nanjing.
The BWF is hopeful the Badminton Asia Championships could still go ahead in Wuhan from April 21-26.
Sai Praneeth also made an early exit after he was forced to retire midway in his first-round match against Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
India also got a favourable result in the women's doubles with Meghana Jakkampudi and S Poorvisha Ram getting past the Guatemala pairing of Diana Corleto Soto and Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor to enter the second round.
The other Indians in fray, seventh seed Kidambi Srikanth and 10th seed Sameer Verma, play their first round on Monday.
The feeling has not yet sunk in, said India's first badminton world champion P V Sindhu after she was given an exuberant welcome on her return to the country which included a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Results 1-9
