Taipei Open: Kashyap, Priyanshu enter 2nd round

Taipei: Former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap, Priyanshu Rajawat and two other Indians entered the men's singles second round of the Taipei Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

While third seed Kashyap beat Chinese Taipei's Chi Yu Jen 24-22 21-10, Rajawat, who was part of India's memorable Thomas Cup victory, defeated another local hope Yu Sheng Po 21-16 21-15 in their first round matches.

Kiran George and Mithun Manjunath also won their respective opening round men's singles matches in straight games.

George, who had won the Odisha Open Super 100 earlier this year, prevailed 23-21 21-17 over Azerbaijan's Ade Resky Dwicahyo, while Manjunath beat Denmark's Kim Bruun 21-17 21-15 in another match.

Continuing her rapid progress at senior level, promising Samiya Farooqui also entered round two, the only Indian still in fray in the women's singles.

The 19-year-old from Hyderabad, who became the Asian Under-15 champion in 2017, beat Selvaduray Kisona of Malaysia 21-15 21-11 in 30 minutes.

Two Indian men's doubles pairs also made the second round.

Fifth seed M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila were stretched to the fullest by the Taipei duo of Lin Yu Chieh and Su Li Wei before the Indians won the contest 21-19 21-23 21-12.

Ishaan Bhatnagar and Sai Pratheek K also had to sweat it out against Charoenkitamorn and Nanthakarn Yordphaisong of Thailand before winning 26-24 14-21 21-19.

A day after making the mixed doubles second round with Bhatnagar, Tanisha Crasto kept her hopes alive in the women's doubles as she along with Shruti Mishra defeated local pair Chiu Pin-Chian and Tung Ciou-Tong 21-14 20-22 22-21.