Sindhu, Kashyap enter second round of Swiss Open

Basel: Top Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap and Anand Pawar got off to winning starts, notching up victories in their respective opening round singles matches at the the USD 125,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold tournament here today.

World championship bronze medallist Sindhu posted a comfortable 21-18 21-15 victory over Malaysian Sannatasah Saniru in 32 minutes to enter the second round of the women`s singles event. Kashyap and Pawar also reached the second round of the men`s singles competition with straight game victories. But it was curtains for Kidambi Srikanth in the men`s singles, while Saili Rane failed to cross the opening round hurdle in women`s singles. Seventh seeded Sindhu opened with a 3-0 lead and went on to extend it to 10-3 in the first game. But the Malaysian raised her tempo and managed to reduce the gap to 15-16 before making it 17-17. But at 18-18, the 18-year-old Hyderabadi girl showed a lot of character as she went on to pocket three straight points to wrap up the opening game 21-18. The second game was a neck-and-neck battle till 7-7 before the Malaysian opened up a 13-9 lead, but Sindhu held on to her nerves to make it 12-13 and then tie it at 14-14. There was no looking back for the Indian from there and she dominated the proceedings to seal the match in her favour. World No. 9 Sindhu will take on winner of the match between Li Michelle of Canada and Russia`s Ella Diehl in the next round. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kashyap prevailed over The Netherlands` Erik Meijs 21-17 21-15 in a match that lasted 34 minutes. World number 18 Kashyap led 6-3 early on, before slipping to 9-11, but he raised his game in time and pocketed the first game. The second game was a more comfortable ride as Kashyap jumped from 5-4 to 10-4 and didn`t give a chance to his opponent and closed the door on Erik. The third seed Indian will next take on German Lukas Schmidt in the next round. Anand, too, didn`t break much sweat before getting past Malaysia`s Kok Pong Loke 21-17 21-10 in a 26-minute match last night, to set up a meeting with another German Tobias Wadenka. However, Thailand Grand Prix Gold winner, Srikanth, seeded fifth, could not reach the next stage after his gallant fight against Sweden`s Henri Hurskainen ended with a close 21-19 18-21 17-21 defeat. Third seeded Shixian Wang of China completely outplayed young Indian Saili 21-8 21-9 in just 31 minutes. The Indian mixed doubles pair of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa also went down fighting against the Polish combo of Robert Mateusiak and Agnieszka Wojtkowska 10-21 21-16 13-21. The contest lasted for 43 minutes. London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, Commonwealth Games gold medallist combination of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will play later today.