HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap marched into the second round in the men's singles event of the Taipei Open 2023 at the Tian-Mu Arena on Wednesday.
In the first round of the BWF Super 300 tournament, Prannoy, currently ranked ninth in the world, eased past Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-10.
Meanwhile, Kashyap, the Commonwealth Games 2014 champion, secured his first win of the year in the main draw of a BWF World Tour event after he defeated Germany's Samuel Hsiao, a qualifier, with a score of 21-15, 21-16.
Third-seed Prannoy was pushed onto back foot in the initial stage of the first game by Lin Yu Hsien but the Indian managed to level the scores at 10-all.
Prannoy did not look back after that and displayed a remarkable grit to claim nine consecutive points to secure the first game. The second game proved to be a walk in the park as Prannoy swiftly attained a 15-5 lead and maintained control until the end, wrapping up the match in just 26 minutes.
Next, Prannoy is set to face world No. 95 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in the pre-quarterfinals while Kashyap will take on world No. 42 Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei.
In other men's singles matches, India's Mithun Manjunath, ranked 39th in the world, engaged in a hard-fought first-round clash against world No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, ultimately losing with a score of 21-18, 14-21, 21-16.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian lost in straight games, 21-13, 21-5, to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama, while Meiraba Luwang Maisnam went down 21-18, 21-17 to Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus.
Kiran George fought valiantly to stage a comeback in the second game but was defeated 22-20, 12-21, 21-9 by Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao.
In the women's singles event, India's Tanya Hemanth, ranked 57th in the world, showcased an impressive performance, defeating Hungary's Agnes Korosi, ranked 86th, with a score of 21-7, 21-17. Hemanth now faces a challenging pre-quarterfinal match against world No. 4 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics silver medalist, Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.
However, Aakarshi Kashyap was unable to advance, falling to Huang Yu-Hsun of Chinese Taipei with a score of 10-21, 21-16, 21-11. Gadde Ruthvika Shivani also faced defeat with a score of 21-12, 21-5 against Chinese Taipei's Chiu Pin-Chian.
But in the mixed doubles category, the Indian pair of Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy prevailed over their compatriots Bokka Navaneeth and Priya Konjenbam in the first round to win 21-14, 21-17.
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