India's Kashyap, Verma and Prannoy enter US Open

Indian shuttlers P Kashyap, Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's singles' competition at the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold in Anaheim.

Kashyap crossed the second round after his Hungarian opponent Gergely Krausz retired midway in the second game with the scoreline reading 21-18 17-6 in favour of the Indian.

The Commonwealth Games champion then defeated Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne, seeded 16th, 21-19 21-10 in the pre-quarterfinal match on the same day.

Kashyap will now face compatriot and fifth seed Sameer Verma, who notched up victories over Croatia's Zvonimir Durkinjak and Brazil's Ygor Coelho.

Sameer, who is making a comeback after recovering from a shoulder injury, had to fight hard to get the better off Zvonimir 21-19 25-27 21-15 in the first match. He then saw off ninth seed Ygor 18-21 21-14 21-18.

Second seed HS Prannoy, meanwhile, brushed aside Ireland's Joshua Magee 21-13 21-17 before staving off a challenge from Netherlands' 12th seed Mark Caljouw, 21-8 14-21 21-16 in 48 minutes.

Prannoy will face eighth seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan next.

Among other Indians in fray, third seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy defeated Indonesian combo of Hendra Tandjaya and Androw Yunanto 21-16 21-9 to set up a clash with seventh seeded Japanese Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera.

Source: Khaleej Times