Singapore Open: P Kashyap wins two games in a day to qualify for main draw along with Mugdha Agrey

India’s Parupalli Kashyap and Mugdha Agrey qualified for the main draw of the men and women singles competitions at the Singapore Open badminton tournament on Tuesday.

Kashyap, a 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist, had to play two three-game encounters in a day to get to the business end of the tournament. He defeated Japan’s Yu Igarashi 15-21, 21-16, 22-20 in the final round of the qualification to seal his place in the main draw in 59 minutes. Kashyap had earlier defeated Malaysia’s June Wei Cheam 21-5, 14-21, 21-17 in his first qualification round, that lasted for 54 minutes.

Kashyap will take on Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in the opening round of the men singles event on Wednesday.

Besides Kashyap, young Mugdha also made it to the main draw of the women’s singles event with a come-from-behind 16-21, 21-14, 21-15 win over Lauren Lam of USA in the qualification round.

Mughda will play Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in her opening round encounter Wednesday.

Elsewhere, it was curtains for men’s doubles pair of Arjun MR and Shlok Ramachandran in the opening round after they lost 11-21, 18-21 against sixth seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark.

The other Indian men’s doubles pair in action on Tuesday – Narendran Balasubramannian Geetha and Raphel Sharon – failed to qualify for the main draw after losing 15-21 14-21 against local pair of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Loh Kean Hean.

PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, K Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy all begin their singles campaigns on Wednesday.

Fourth seed Sindhu, off to a shaky start in 2019, will look to get back to winning ways when she faces unseeded Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky from Indonesia. Sixth seed Nehwal, on her comeback from injury troubles in recent past, takes on another unseeded Indonesian Yulia Susanto.

In the men’s singles side, Prannoy takes on journeyman French shuttler Brice Leverdez. The toughest task for an Indian shuttler is with Sai Praneeth, who takes on world No 1 Kento Momota. Srikanth, the sixth seed, takes on Sitthikon Thammasin from Thailand.