Kashyap crashes out of China Masters

Kashyap lost 10-21 22-20 13-21 to former World No. 6 and third seed Qiao Bin of China in a contest which lasted an hour and 16 minutes. 

The tournament was Kashyap’s return to competitive badminton after recovering from a shoulder injury. He had suffered the injury during the Premier Badminton League (PBL) in January. Harsheel Dani remains the sole Indian in fray in the tournament and will play another Chinese Sun Feixiang in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event later in the day. 

India’s campaign in women’s singles has already ended with the ouster of Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli.

PV Sindhu climbed up two places to be at No. 3 in the latest BWF ranking released on Thursday. Sindhu, who had slipped to number five last week, earned two spots on the basis of making the quarterfinals of the recently-concluded Singapore Open Super Series. 

Saina Nehwal also jumped up a place to be ranked eighth. In the men’s singles Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth are placed at 21st and 22nd respectively. Ajay Jayaram continued to be the highest-ranked Indian at the 13th position.