Parupalli Kashyap, Anand Pawar ease into third round; Saina Nehwal powers through opener

Saina opened her campaign in the women's singles event with a straight game win over Chisato Hoshi of Japan.

Top Indian male shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Anand Pawar eased into the third round of the Swiss Grand Prix Gold tournament, while Saina Nehwal made a winning start to her campaign in the women’s singles event of the USD 125,000 event.

Kashyap, seeded third, took 33 minutes to dispose off Lukas Schmidt of Germany 21-15 21-14 last night to secure his place in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event.

While Kashyap looked a little bit shaky a times, Pawar was at his clinical best as he fended off challenge from another German Tobias Wadenka 21-11 21-4 in just 24 minutes.

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Kashyap will next face Beryno Jiann Tze Wong of Malaysia, while Pawar has a tough task at hand as he takes on sixth seed Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei later on Thursday.

Meanwhile, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina opened her campaign in the women’s singles event with a straight game win over qualifier Chisato Hoshi of Japan.

The sixth seeded Indian beat her Japanese opponent 21-12 21-12 in 34 minutes to progress to the second round. Saina will next face Sashina Vignes Waran of France later today, while the other Indian in fray in the women’s singles event — seventh seed P V Sindhu will be up against Canadian Li Michelle in her second round duel.