NEW ZEALAND GRAND PRIX Indian quartet enter pre-quarters
New Delhi, Aug. 2: H.S. Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap continued their good run, reaching the prequarter-finals with straight game wins in the men’s singles competition of the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold at Auckland, on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Prannoy, who clinched the US Open in California last month, staved off a challenge from Indonesia’s Firman Abdul Kholik 23-21, 21-18.
Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, who had also reached the finals of the US Open, notched up a crushing win over New Zealand’s Oscar Guo 21-9, 21-8.
Prannoy meets 10th seed Hong Kong’s Wei Nan, while 15th seed Kashyap faces compatriot and seventh seed Sourabh Verma.
Sourabh, seeded seventh, posted a 21-16, 21-16 win over Indonesia’s Henrikho Kho Wibowo, while 16th seed Siril Verma beat another Indonesian Saputra Vicky Angga 2114, 21-16 to advance to the next round.
Young shuttlers — Sahil Sipani and Neeraj Vashist — suffered straight-game losses in the second round.
Sahil lost 9-21, 8-21 to 11th seed Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei, while Neeraj went down 16-21, 13-21 to Australia’s Anthony Joe.
Pratul Joshi also bowed out, losing 13-21, 22-24 to top seed Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei in another men’s singles match.
Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant lost 15-21, 18-21 to Japanese fourth seed Ayako Sakuramoto and Yukiko Takahata in women’s doubles.
In mixed doubles, the Chinese pair of Fan Qiuyue and Xuanxuan Liu ended the journey of Prajakta Sawant and Malaysia’s Yogendran Khrishnan 21-13, 21-13. — PTI