Prannoy, Kashyap progress to third round of New Zealand Open

Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap and US Open winner HS Prannoy progressed through to the third round of the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold in Auckland after registering victories in their respective matches in the men's singles event on Wednesday.

15-seeded Kashyap secured an easy win over local shuttler Oscar Guo 21-9, 21-8 in a one-sided contest that lasted for just 25 minutes.

Prannoy, ranked fourth, on the other hand registered a straight-game win over Indonesia's Firman Abdul Kholik 23-21, 21-18 in 53 minutes.

Other Indian shuttlers Siril Verma and Sourabh Verma also progressed to the next round, while Sahil Sipani and Neeraj Vashist made exit from the USD 120,000 event.

Kashyap will now face Sourabh in the third round while Prannoy will lock horns with 10-seeded Wei Nan.

16-seeded Siril defeated Saputra Vicky Angga of Indonesia 21-14, 21-16 to enter the third round of the competition. Siril will now face Chia Hung Lu of Chinese Taipei.

Seventh-seeded Saurabh also registered an astounding 21-16, 21-16 over Indonesia's Henrikho Kho Wibowo in a match lasting only 28 minutes.

On the other hand, Neeraj bowed out of the tournament after suffering a 16-21, 13-21 defeat against America's Anthony Joe while 11-seeded Lin Yu Hsien defeated Sahil 21-9, 21-8.

Pratul Joshi had to exit from the tournament after facing a 13-21, 22-24 defeat against top seed Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei.