Kashyap, Sameer, Prannoy reach US Open quarters

TIL Desk Sports/ Indian shuttlers P Kashyap, Sameer Verma and H S Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s singles’ competition at the USD 120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold here.

Kashyap crossed the second round after his opponent Hungary’s 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 prequarterfinals match on the same day. Kashyap will next 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 H S Prannoy, meanwhile, brushed aside Ireland’s Joshua Magee 21-13 21-17 before staving off a challenge from Netherlands’ Mark Caljouw, seeded 12th, 21-8 14-21 21-16 in 48 minutes. Prannoy will face eighth seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan next.