China Masters: Kashyap, Harsheel reach prequarters

Commonwealth Games champion P. Kashyap and Harsheel Dani advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of men’s singles competition at the China Masters Grand Prix Gold here on Wednesday.

Back to playing competitive badminton after recovering from a shoulder injury, which he suffered during the Premier Badminton League (PBL) in January, Kashyap took 46 minutes to dispose off Thailand’s Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-16, 21-17 at the Olympic Sports Center.

The former World No. 6, Kashyap, will face third seeded Chinese Qiao Bin tomorrow.

Young Harsheel from Mumbai also gave a good account of himself as he edged 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 women’s singles.

Sai went down fighting 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.