PTI
Balikpapan (Indonesia), Sept 6: A series of injuries derailing his Rio Olympic dreams, a fit-again Parupalli Kashyap will resume his journey in international badminton when he competes at the Indonesia Grand Prix Gold here Wednesday.
Kashyap along with seven other Indians, including 2014 champion HS Prannoy, will be looking to make a mark in men’s singles. Kashyap’s injury problems started in October last year when he suffered a calf muscle tear. But the final nail on his Olympic dream was when he suffered a knee injury and retired midway at German Open in March.
Kashyap also had to go under the knife and what followed was rigorous physiotherapy to get back on court. Now that the worst phase of his career is over, Kashyap will now be eyeing a steady progress ahead.
“I’ve trained hard last two months. I just want to play and enjoy competing again. It’ll take a couple of matches or tournaments to hit a good rhythm. The faster the better,” Kashyap stated Tuesday. He will be facing local shuttler Nathaniel Ernestan Sulistyo in the first round.
Among others, seventh seed Prannoy will take on Korean Ha Young Woong while third seed Ajay Jayaram will meet local favourite Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky, Canada Open winner B Sai Praneeth, seeded 10th, will face local shuttler Riyanto Subagja in their respective first round openers.
In women’s singles, PC Thulasi will have a difficult customer in fourth seed Xiaoyu Liang of Singapore in the opening round, while Tanvi Lad will be up against another Indonesian, Ruselli Hartawan.
Meanwhile the men’s doubles pair of K Nandagopal and Sanyam Shukla advanced to the main draw after notching up consecutive wins in the qualifiers here. Nandagopal and Shukla defeated Indonesian pair of Kaizar Bobby Alexander and Ferdian Fascal 21-11, 21-10 and then prevailed 21-12, 21-19 over Indonesia’s Raynaldi Dita Kusuma and Thailand’s Boworn Phutthaporn.
