Mulheim an der Ruhr (Germany): Top Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap crossed the opening hurdle to reach the second round of men’s singles competition at the USD 120,000 German Grand Prix Gold here on Wednesday.
Women’s seventh seed P.V. Sindhu won her opening round in 31 minutes beating unseeded American Rong Schafer 21-11, 21-13. She next runs into Canada’s Michelle Li who beat Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-16.
Srikanth, who clinched the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold at Lucknow in January this year, saw off Japan’s Takuma Ueda 12-21, 21-18, 21-11 in a hard-fought battle that lasted close to an hour last night.
The sixth seeded Indian will face The Netherlands’ Erik Meijs next. Kashyap, on the other hand, had an easy outing on the opening day as he spanked Ukraine’s Artem Pochtarev 21-9, 21-9 in his first international match in more than a month.
The 11th seeded Indian, who missed a lot of time due to a series of injuries, will meet Irish qualifier Joshua Magee in a second round encounter.
Young Indian shuttler Sameer Verma also notched up a easy win over Dmytro Zavadsky 21-9, 21-8 to set up a clash with Korea’s Lee Dong Keun, seeded 15th.
