Satwik-Ashwini, Kashyap qualify

Kowloon, Nov. 13: Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap made a solid start to his campaign, defeating Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao in the qualifying round of the Hong Kong World Tour Super 500 tournament here on Tuesday.

Kashyap, who has been battling a series of injuries in the last few years, defeated Hao 21-7, 12-21, 2118 in a match that lasted an hour and three minutes.

The Indian will next face Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, seeded

7th, in the main draw. Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also recovered from a midgame slump to outwit Chinese Taipei’s Wang ChiLin and Lee Chia Hsin 2116, 19-21, 21-14 in the opening round of the main draw. The duo will next meet another Taiwanese combination of Lee Yang and Hsu Ya Ching.

Kashyap, a former world no 6, has been struggling to be in his best shape ever since his knee injury spoilt his Rio Olympic dream.

He made a good start to the season, wining the Austrian challenge but injuries came back to haunt him.

“It has been tough few years for me with injuries. This year I suffered a stress fracture in my right leg fibula bone after the Austrian Challenge which took me two months to recover. I missed almost four tournaments in this period,” he said.

He recovered to play the Thailand Open but again hurt his back, which took almost three months to recover. “These results although not satisfying, I am just happy to be back on the circuit and playing some tournaments. Now the aim is to stay fit and get higher in ranking gradually,” he said. He also turned as a coach for Saina Nehwal at Denmark and French Open. — PTI