World Badminton Championship: Parupalli Kashyap, Prannoy reach second round

Jakarta: Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and H S Prannoy warmed up for bigger battles ahead with straight-game victories in the opening round of the prestigious World Badminton Championship here on Monday.

Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, seeded 10th, defeated Netherlands' Erik Meijs 21-17, 21-10 to set up a clash with Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh in the men's singles competition at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium.

Indonesia Masters winner Prannoy, who is making a comeback after being sidelined due to a foot injury, disposed off Brazil's Alex Yuwan Tjong 21-12 21-16 to start his campaign on a positive note.

The 11th seed will next take on Uganda's Edwin Ekiring in the next round.

But the Indian mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan suffered a close 18-21 21-10 22-24 loss to Russian pair of Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova, while another pair of Tarun Kona and Sikki N Reddy too went down 13-21 17-21 against Liao Min Chun and Chen Hsiao Huan of Chinese Taipei.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, India Super Series winner Kidambi Srikanth and two-time bronze medal winner P V Sindhu will start their campaign on Tuesday.