Saina Nehwal made a disappointing return to the court as she crashed out with an opening-round loss but P Kashyap kept the Indian hopes alive by advancing to the pre-quarterfinals of the Japan Open Super Series badminton tournament in Tokyo.
The only Indian contender in the men’s singles, Kashyap kept the tricolour fluttering and notched up a 21-17 12-21 21-11 win over Japanese Takuma Ueda in a 51-minute battle.
World number 34 Kashyap will next take on number three Dane Peter Hoeg Gade in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
However, Saina, coming back after a month-long break, lost 15-21 23-21 14-21 to world number 10 Yanjiao Jiang of China in a 53-minute clash in the women’s singles.
The seventh seeded Indian mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju also hit a low after their Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold win last month and crashed out of the tournament with an 18-21 12-21 against Thai combo of Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thungthongkam.
Jwala had more disappointment in store as she and her Ashwini Ponnappa were beaten 15-21 21-19 18-21 against seventh seed Japanese combo of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna in the women’s doubles opener that lasted more than one hour.
The men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas also bit the dust after going down 12-21 16-21 against the Korean pair of Sung Hyun Ko and Yi Goo Kwon inside 30 minutes.
