Austrian Open 2018: Parupalli Kashyap and Subhankar Dey reach second round

Second seed Parupalli Kashyap and fourth seed Subhankar Dey started their campaigns at the Austrian Open 2018 with commanding victories to enter the second round of this International Challenge tournament held at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria on Thursday.

The reigning Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap needed 35 minutes to beat the World No. 91 Gergely Krausz of Hungary and set up a second round meeting with the 119th ranked Jia Wei Tan. The World No. 44 is looking to continue his good form after reaching the quarter-finals of the India Open earlier this month.

National Championships bronze medallist Subhankar Dey was equally impressive in his opener and easily beat Bulgaria’s World No. 118 Ivan Rusev 21-11, 21-11. He next takes on the 151st ranked Job Castillo, who narrowly edged India’s Karan Rajan Rajarajan 19-21, 21-15, 21-19 in the first round.

Rahul Yadav Chittaboina beat Thai qualifier Ruttanapak Oupthong 21-18, 21-18 to be the only other Indian to enter Round 2 in men’s singles. Chittaboina has a tough task next as he has the seventh seeded Victor Svendsen in the second round.

Sahil Sipani and Kanishq M, however, failed to cross the first hurdle. Sipani was outclassed 15-21 9-21 by the third seed Vladimir Malkov and qualifier Kanishq was beaten 13-21, 19-21 by Jacob Nilsson of Sweden.

Young Ira Sharma enters Round 2

In women’s singles, 18-year-old Ira Sharma was the only Indian to progress to the second round. She pummelled higher-ranked Zuzana Pavelkova 21-9, 21-4 in a breezy 20-minute encounter. Sharma will next face the Chinese qualifier Xu Wei, who stunned the seventh seed Irina Amalie Andersen.

Vrushali Gummadi, another of India’s rising stars, did not have the same good fortunes and went down 19-21, 21-11, 20-22 to World No. 139 Georgina Bland in a tight first round match.

Earlier in qualifying, Tanishq Mamilla Palli was defeated 15-21, 11-21 by Japan’s Shiori Ebihara in women’s singles.