Parupalli Kashyap stretched, PV Sindhu sails through

On a day when India featured in 11 matches, only fourth-seed Parupalli Kashyap, B Sai Praneeth (men’s singles), PV Sindhu (women’s singles) and women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre advanced to the second round of the Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) in Chinese Taipei.

World No. 7 Kashyap had to fight it out against Korea’s Ji Hoon Hong, ranked 99 places below him, in an hour and 10 minutes before emerging a 18-21 21-15 22-20 winner on Wednesday. Kashyap came up with a fine all-round game, picking up his winners through smashes, intelligent net play and also cashing in on his opponent’s mistakes.

Kashyap survived a scare in the third game when he was trailing 16-19 and won four straight points to go up 20-19. However, at 20-all, Kashyap regained his serve and closed the match without anymore hiccups.

Kashyap will next face local player Han Chou Chu in the second round.

Sai Praneeth had it easy against Mohamed Ajfan Rasheed of Maldives 21-10 21-12, winning in just 21 minutes.

In the women’s singles, Sindhu wiped out Hong Kong’s Tsz Ka Chan in 32 minutes, 21-18 21-19.

She runs into third-seed Wang Shixian of China in the second round.

Meanwhile, Chinese Lin Dan, playing for the first time since winning men’s singles gold in last year’s London Olympics, wasted little time in disposing of Vietnam’s Tuan Duc Do 21-12 21-6.