HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap advance to second round of New Zealand Open

HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap made it to the second round of the New Zealand Open Grand Prix Gold after beating Hiren Rhustavito and Hayom Rumbaka respectively.

Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap stormed into the second round of the $120,000 New Zealand Open Grand Prix Gold at the North Shore Events Centre after winning their respective opening rounds of the men’s singles event here on Tuesday.

H.S. Prannoy has made it to round 2 of the New Zealand Open Grand Prix Gold. (AFP)

Fourth-seed Prannoy, who recently clinched US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament title, swept aside Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito to post a comfortable 21-14, 21-16 win in a one-sided clash that lasted 36 minutes.

READ | C Rahul Yadav , Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy clinch titles at Lagos Open badminton

Kashyap, on the other hand, took just 22 minutes to ease past Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia 21-5, 21-10 and make progress.

Prannoy will now lock horns with Indonesia’s Firman Abdul Kholik while Kashyap will cross swords with local shuttler Oscar Guo on Wednesday.

READ | Jwala Gutta slams social media trolls for calling her ‘anti-national’

Ajay Jayaram, another Indian in the fray, suffered a major setback as he got knocked out of the ongoing tournament after going down in straight games against Chia Hung Lu of Chinese Taipei.

The second-seed suffered a 19-21, 13-21 defeat to Hung Lu in the first round of men’s singles event that lasted almost half an hour.