World No 9 Parupalli Kashyap managed to advance to the second round of the $125,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold while Sourabh Varma and K Srikanth ended their campaign in the first round of the tier three tournament
London Olympics quarter-finalist Kashyap eased past Hsuan Yi Hsueh in straight games, winning 21-7, 21-19 in 33 minutes. This was the Hyderabadi’s second win in as many matches over the World No 75 Hsueh.
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Meanwhile, HS Prannoy caused an upset by defeating seventh seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand to advance to the third round. Prannoy, ranked 97 in the world, overcame the World No 11 in 55 minutes at St Jakobshalle. The Kerala shuttler won 18-21, 21-13, 21-12 in their first ever meeting.
World No 43 Varma lost in the main draw of 64 to Indonesian 14th seed Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka in three games in 58 minutes. Rumbaka won 11-21, 21-18, 23-21 in their first ever career meet. Srikanth, meanwhile, went down in a spirited fight to Danish fourth seed Jan O Jorgensen 21-10, 17-21, 13-21.
Earlier in the day, Arundhati Pantawane, P.C. Thulasi and Tanvi Lad failed to qualify for the main draw of the women’s singles.
While Arundhati reached the second and final round of the qualifiers, Thulasi and Tanvi went down in the first round itself.u00a0