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Kashyap, Jayaram advance in China

Olympic quarter-finalist P Kashyap eked out a hard-fought three-game win over Chinese qualifier Huan Gao to enter the second round on a reasonably good day for the Indian shuttlers in the Li Ning China Masters badminton tournament in Changzhou on Wednesday.

The eighth-seeded Kashyap, who is a Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist, staved off the stiff challenge posed by Gao with a 21-13 14-21 21-19 win that came after an hour and 18 minutes of slogging.

Kashyap will now face compatriot R M V Gurusaiutt, who endured an equally tough fight against Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim before winning 21-18 19-21 21-13 in exactly an hour. Ajay Jayaram scored an upset win when he got the better of third-seeded Japanese Kenichi Tago 21-13 21-17 to set up a second-round clash with Singapore’s Zi Liang Derek Wong. Sourabh Verma also made his way into the next round after rallying to beat Malaysia’s Daren Liew 9-21 21-17 21-12 in a match lasting a little over an hour. The lone Indian in fray in women’s singles, P V Sindhu too made a fine start as she sailed past American Jamie Subandhi 21-15, 21-12. She would be facing eighth-seeded Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in the second round.
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