Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy sailed into the pre-quarterfinals with straight-game wins but it was heartbreak for Parupalli Kashyap in the men’s singles competition at the World badminton Championship here on Wednesday.
World No. 3 Srikanth, who won the India Super Series this year, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao 21-14 21-15, while World No. 12 Prannoy beat Uganda’s Edwin Ekiring 21-14 21-19 in another lop-sided contest.
While third seed Srikanth will take on 13th seed Hu Yun of Hong Kong, against whom the Hyderabadi has a 2-0 record, 11th seed Prannoy will have a tough task ahead as he faces Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. The World No. 7 has beaten Prannoy twice in the last two meeting.
Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, seeded 10th, played out of his skin but could not get past 32-year-old Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam, losing 21-17 13-21 18-21 in a tough encounter that lasted an hour and five minutes.
There was good news for 2011 World Championship bronze medallists, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa as the 13th seed beat Chinese Taipei pair of Hsueh Pei Chen and Wu Ti Jung 21-10 21-18 in women’s doubles competition.
The Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallists will next meet eighth seeds Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.
Among other Indians in fray, women’s doubles combo of Pradnya Gadre and Sikki N Reddy suffered a 17-21 19-21 loss to 14th seeded Japanese combo of Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar went down 16-21 12-21 to Denmark’s Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding in the men’s doubles event.
