Asian C'ship: Sindhu, Kashyap, Gurusaidutt win opening matches

Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap and R M V Gurusaidutt made a positive start to their campaign by winning their respective opening round matches at the USD 200,000 Asian Badminton championship in Gimcheon, Korea here today. However, it was curtains for Singapore Open semifinalist Kidambi Srikanth as he went down to Chinese veteran Lin Dan 7-21 14-21 in 32 minutes in a men’s singles first round match. [caption id=“attachment_1493269” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of P V Sindhu. AFP[/caption] World No. 10 Sindhu faced a tough challenge from Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi before prevail over her opponent 21-15 15-21 21-18 in a women’s singles match that lasted an hour. Sindhu will next face Hirose Eriko of Japan in the next round. Hirose has a 3-0 lead against the Indian. Kashyap and Gurusaidutt registered contrasting victories in their respective men’s singles matches. While Kashyap posted a comfortable 21-14 21-17 win over Goh Soon Huat of Malaysia in 35 minutes, Gurusaidutt fought hard before posting a 22-20 23-21 victory over Phetpradab Khosit of Thailand in a 44-minute contest. In the second round, Kashyap will take on Hsu Jen Hao of Taipei, while Gurusaidutt will clash against another shuttler from Taipei, Wang Tzu Wei. In the men’s doubles event, Indian pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost to Malaysia’s Low Juan Shen and Heg Nelson Wei Keat 21-16 13-21 20-22. PTI