Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap crashed out in the second qualifying round of the
Canada Badminton Open BWF Super 500 -event in Calgary.
Playing on the badminton courts of the Markin-MacPhail Centre, Kashyap opened his campaign with a win over
world No. 67 Kai Schaefer of Germany in the first qualifying round. The Indian dominated the first game but had to save
two game points for a 21-14, 22-20 victory.
In the second qualifying match, Kashyap put up a strong fight against world No. 65 Lae Lan Xi but lost 21-17, 22-20.
Kashyap, a former world No. 6 has not won a BWF tournament since 2018 and is 189th in the current badminton rankings.
Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, India’s only challenge in men’s doubles, progressed to the second
round of the main draw.
The Indian pair ranked 38th in doubles, beat the world No. 63 pair of Lu Chen and Chen Zhi Ray of Chinese Taipei 21-14,
21-16 in the first round.
However, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala could potentially run into three-time world champions Mohammad Ahsan
and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia in the second round.
In women’s doubles, world No. 95 Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda, went down against the unranked Canadian pair of Jacqueline
Cheung and Jeslyn Chow in three games – 21-15, 15-21, 9-21.