Korea Open: Parupalli Kashyap qualifies for main draw with two gruelling victories

Seoul: Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap notched up consecutive victories in the qualifiers to reach the main draw of the USD 600,000 Korea Super Series in Seoul on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2284400” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Parupalli Kashyap. AFP[/caption] At the Seong-nam Indoor Stadium in Seoul, Kashyap played two gruelling contests and came out with flying colours in both occasions to set up a fight against Chinese fourth seed Tian Houwei in the opening round of men’s singles on Thursday. The Indian first eked out a 15-21 23-21 21-19 victory over local shuttler Ko Gyung Bo in an hour contest, before edging out Thailand’s Pannawit Thongnuam 15-21 21-16 21-15 in the second match of the day that lasted 55 minutes. The 30-year-old from Hyderabad, who is making his way back into the international circuit after a long injury lay-off, has played twice against Tian and had beaten the Chinese in his last encounter at 2014 French Open. K Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, H S Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth will start their campaign in men’s singles, while Tanvi Lad will be the only competitor in women’s singles.