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2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap upset the no. 1 seed Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei in the qualifying round of the ongoing Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open. Mixed doubles pair Satwiksairaj and Ashwini Ponnappa won their first round match against the pair from Chinese Taipei.
Former world no. 6 Kashyap, who has been struggling from injuries for the last couple of years, made a solid start to his campaign and qualified for the main draw at the HSBC Super 500 level tournament in Hong Kong. He beat the world no. 40 Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei in the three games by 21-7, 12-21, 21-18 in an hour and three-minute long match. Earlier, he got into the final round of the qualifying draw as the player from Malaysia, Iskandar Zulkarnain, withdrew from the tournament.
He will now be up against the Asian Games bronze medallist and the winner of 2018 China Open world tour 1000 event earlier this year, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, in the opening round of the main draw. Kashyap is a match down in the head-to-head affairs with the no. 7 seed player from Indonesia.
In mixed doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa won their first round match against Wang Chi-Lin and Lee Chia Hsin of Chinese Taipei. They won their match in three games by 21-16, 19-21, 21-14 in the 54-minute long match. They will be now up against another pair from Chinese Taipei, Lee Yang and Hsu Ya Ching, in the second round match on Thursday.
Star badminton players P.V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth along with other Indian players will start their campaign from Wednesday. This is the last major tournament to qualify for the season-ending HSBC World Tour Finals to be held in Guangzhou, China.
Srikanth will lead the challenge in men's singles along with Sameer Verma, B. Sai Praneeth, H.S. Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap. while Saina Nehwal and Sindhu will be in action in women's singles.
Satwik and Ashwini will also be in action in men's and women's doubles along with Chirag Shetty and N. Sikki Reddy respectively. Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will join Satwik- Chirag in men's doubles.
