Singapore, April 9 (IANS) Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and H.S. Prannoy notched up superb victories to enter the men’s singles quarter-finals at the $300,000 Singapore Open Superseries here on Thursday.
The experienced Kashyap came up with a brilliant performance to oust fourth-seeded South Korean Son Wan Ho. The Commonwealth Games champion took 46 minutes to win 21-15, 22-20 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to register his first victory over the World No.5 in three meetings.
Kashyap, 28, will next take on French Brice Leverdez, against whom the Hyderabadi has a 1-1 record. However, the last time they met was four years back in Malaysia.
Later, World No.14 Prannoy caused one of the biggest upsets of the tournament when he downed Danish second seed Jan O Jorgensen 21-16, 21-8 in only 33 minutes.
Though the World No.2 was expected to win, Prannoy’s 2-0 career advantage which he has now extended to 3-0, gave the Kerala shuttler the psychological edge going into the match.
Prannoy will next take on Japan’s Kento Momota, against whom the Indian has never won in his previous two meetings.
However, it was the end of the road for Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in the second round of women’s doubles. The Commonwealth Games champions went down to multiple time World Champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang. Though the Indian combine lost 22-24, 18-21 but not before giving a fight in a 40-minute battle.