Kashyap exits, Jwala-Ashwini advance in Badminton World Championships

Tenth seeded Indian badminton star Parupalli Kashyap lost but the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnapa won their respective matches in the World Championships here on Wednesday.

Kashyap was knocked out of the tournament after losing 21-17, 13-21, 18-21 to Nguyen Tien Minh of Hong Kong in the second round at the 9000-seater Istora Senayan in a match that stretched for an hour and five minutes.

But the Jwala-Ashwini pair had better luck, winning their second round contest 21-10, 21-18 against Chinese Taipei's duo of Hsieh Pei Chen and Wu Ti Jung.

The doubles specialists dominated the contest from the very beginning and wrapped up the match in just 24 minutes, winning 42 of the 70 total points played.

They will next play the Japanese pair of Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda in the next round.

The other Indian doubles pair of Pradnya Gadre and Sikki N. Reddy failed to emulate their senior teammates and went down fighting 17-21, 19-21 against Japan's Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito.

While Kashyap's loss was definitely a blow to the 18-member strong Indian contingent, the country's other singles player H.S. Prannoy kept his chances alive by winning his second round contest on Wednesday.

Eleventh-seed Prannoy took only 39 minutes to beat Ugandan player Edwin Ekiring 21-14 21-19 to sail into the third round. He won 42 of the 75 total points played in the game.

Prannoy will face seventh seeded Dane Viktor Axelsen in the quarter-final clash.

Later in the day, world number two Saina Nehwal will take on Ngan Yi Cheung of Hong Kong in the women's singles competition.