Orleans Masters 2018: Sameer Verma and Parupalli Kashyap enter third round

The top Indian stars had a smooth progress at the Orleans Masters 2018 on Wednesday as both the top seed Sameer Verma and the fifth seed Parupalli Kashyap booked their places in the pre-quarter-finals of this Super 100 tournament held in Orleans, France. Fresh from his Swiss Open title win in February, Verma swatted aside the World No. 81 Sergey Sirant 21-7, 21-9 in just 22 minutes.

The World No. 37 next takes on the 64th ranked Thomas Rouxel of France for a place in the quarter-finals.

Parupalli Kashyap, who too won a title the same week as Verma, had an equally impressive start to his campaign. The Austrian Open winner brushed aside the 101st ranked Zvonimir Durkinjak 21-16, 21-7 to set up a clash with Irish qualifier Joshua Magee in the third round.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt continued his good run in this tournament by advancing to the pre-quarter-finals. The 28-year-old, who is a qualifier at this event, staved off a tough challenge from Germany’s Kai Schaeffer in the second game for a 21-12, 24-22 win.

He has an uphill task in the next round for he faces the former World No. 2 Jan O Jorgensen, who is climbing his way back to the top tier after a long battle with a heel injury.

In women’s singles, Mugdha Agrey won an all-Indian match to make it through to the second round. The qualifier beat higher-ranked Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-18, 21-18 to set up a meeting with the eighth seed Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.

In men’s doubles, sixth seeds and Iran International Challenge champions Francis Alwin and Kidambi Nandagopal beat Denmark’s Jeppe Bay and Rasmus Kjaer 23-21, 21-14. Top seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy gave a walkover to Tang Jie Chen and Pang Ron Hoo.

Kartikey Gulshan Kumar, Sahil Sipani, Kartik Jindal, Hemanth M Gowda and Rahul Yadav Chittaboina all succumbed in the second round. In women’s singles, Vaidehi Choudhari and Saili Rane also had to bite the dust.