Srikanth, Prannoy progress at World C'ships; Kashyap loses

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also advance in women's doubles

Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy sailed into the pre-quarter-finals, but it was heartbreak for Parupalli Kashyap in the men's singles at the World Badminton Championships in Jakarta on Wednesday.

World No 3 Srikanth, who won the India Super Series earlier this year, defeated Chinese Taipei's Hsu Jen Hao 21-14, 21-15, while No 12 Prannoy beat Uganda's Edwin Ekiring 21-14, 21-19 in another lop-sided contest.

While third seed Srikanth will take on 13th seed Hu Yun of Hong Kong, against whom the Hyderabadi has a 2-0 record, 11th seed Prannoy has a tough task ahead as he faces Denmark's Viktor Axelsen next. The world No 7 beat Prannoy in their last two meetings.

Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, seeded 10th, played out of his skin but could not get past 32-year-old Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam, losing 21-17, 13-21, 18-21 in a tough encounter that lasted 65 minutes.

Later in the day, Saina Nehwal made it to the pre-quarter-finals of the women's singles.

The second seeded Indian, who had a bye in the first round, needed just 34 minutes to overcome Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi 21-13, 21-9.

She will next take on fourth seed Sayaka Takahashi of Japan.

It was a dominating show by the shuttler from Hyderabad and after taking a 6-1 lead in the first game there was no looking back.

2011 World Championship bronze medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa as the 13th seed beat the Chinese Taipei pair of Hsueh Pei Chen and Wu Ti Jung 21-10, 21-18 in the women's doubles.

The Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallists will next meet eighth seeds Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda of Japan in the pre-quarter-finals.

Among other Indians in the fray, the women's doubles combo of Pradnya Gadre and Sikki N Reddy suffered a 17-21, 19-21 loss to the 14th seeded Japanese combo of Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar went down 16-21, 12-21 to Denmark's Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding in the men's doubles.

Image: India’s H S. Prannoy competes against Edwin Ekiring of Uganda in the BWF World Championship at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Photograph: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images