Mulheim an der Ruhr (Germany): Top Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap crossed the opening hurdle to reach the second round of men’s singles competition at the USD 120,000 German Grand Prix Gold here.
Srikanth, who clinched the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold at Lucknow in January this year, saw off Japan’s Takuma Ueda 12-21 21-18 21-11 in a hard-fought battle that lasted close to an hour last night.
The sixth seeded Indian will face The Netherlands’ Erik Meijs next.
Kashyap, on the other hand, had an easy outing on the opening day as he spanked Ukraine’s Artem Pochtarev 21-9 21-9 in his first international match in more than a month.
The 11th seeded Indian, who missed a lot of time due to a series of injuries, will meet Irish qualifier Joshua Magee in the second round.
Young Indian shuttler Sameer Verma also notched up a easy win over Dmytro Zavadsky 21-9 21-8 to set up a clash with Korea’s Lee Dong Keun, seeded 15th.
Another Indian qualifier Kaushal Dharmamer lost to 14th seed Marc Zwiebler 21-4 21-14 in the opening round. Indian men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will meet England combo of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge.
