Top Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Anand Pawar reached the second round of the men’s singles competition with straight game victories but it was curtains for young Kidambi Srikanth in the $125,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold tournament here.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Kashyap prevailed over The Netherlands’s Erik Meijs 21-17 21-15 in a match that last 34 minutes. The third seed Indian will next take on German Lukas Schmidt in the next round.
Anand too did not break much sweat before getting across Malaysia’s Kok Pong Loke 21-17 21-10 in a 26-minute match last night to set up a meeting with another German Tobias Wadenka.
However, Thailand Grand Prix Gold winner, Srikanth, seeded fifth, could not reach the next stage after his gallant fight against Sweden’s Henri Hurskainen ended with a close 21-19 18-21 17-21 defeat in the opening round.
World number 18 Kashyap lead 6-3 early on but he lost the lead and was 9-11 down but he raised his game in time and pocketed the first game.
The second game was a more comfortable ride as Kashyap jumped from 5-4 to 10-4 and did not give any chance to his opponent and closed the door on Erik.
London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, world championship bronze winner P V Sindhu, young Saili Rane, Commonwealth Games gold medallist combination of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and mixed doubles pair of Tarun Kona and Ashwini, will start their campaign today.