Badminton: Kashyap, Harsheel in China Masters PQFs

New Delhi: Commonwealth Games champion P. Kashyap and Harsheel Dani advanced to the pre-quarter-finals of the men’s singles at the $150,000 China Masters Grand Prix Gold in Changzhou on Wednesday.

Back to competitive badminton after a shoulder injury suffered during the Premier Badminton League in January, Kashyap took 46 minutes to dispose of Thailand’s Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-16, 21-17 at the Olympic Sports Center. Former world no. 6 Kashyap will next face third seed Qiao Bin of China.

Mumbai’s Harsheel gave a good account of himself, edging out China’s Yan Runze 21-16, 22-20 to set up a match against another Chinese, Sun Feixiang.

However, it was curtains for Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli in the women’s singles. Sai went down 4-21, 21-13, 12-21 to Li Wenmei of China, while Sri Krishna lost 18-21, 11-21 to China’s Li Yun in another match.