Saina, Sindhu win; Kashyap bows out

World no. 1 Saina Nehwal started her campaign with a hard-fought win, while P V Sindhu too continued her rampaging run but it was curtains for top men’s shuttler Parupalli Kashyap at the $200,000 Badminton Asia Championship on Thursday.

Saina, who got a bye and a walkover in the first two rounds, was off the blocks with a 21-14, 10-21, 21-10 win over Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in an hour and seven minutes.The Indian will next take on fifth seed Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei. Eighth seed Sindhu set up a clash with top seed Li Xuerui of China in the quarterfinals after brushing aside Macau’s Teng Iok U 21-8, 21-9 at the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium. However, Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap’s gallant fight ended with a 23-21, 17-21, 8-21 loss to Zhengming Wang of China.

Men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy B sank 10-21, 13-21 against third seeds Xiaolong Liu and Zihan Qiu of China. Mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan also went down 13-21, 5-21 to Kai Lu and Yaqiong Huang of China.