Parupalli Kashyap qualifies for main draw of Korea super series tournament

Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap registered consecutive victories in the qualifiers to reach the main draw of the USD 600,000 Korea Super Series.

At the Seong-nam Indoor Stadium here, Kashyap played two gruelling contests and came out with flying colours in both occasion to set up an encounter with Chinese fourth seed Tian Houwei in the opening round of men's singles on Wednesday.

The Indian first eked out a 15-21 23-21 21-19 victory over local shuttler Ko Gyung Bo in an hour contest, before edging out Thailand's Pannawit Thongnuam 15-21 21-16 21-15 in the second match of the day that lasted 55 minutes.

The 30-year-old from Hyderabad, who is making his way back into the international circuit after a long injury lay-off, has played twice against Tian and had beaten the Chinese in his last encounter at 2014 French Open.

Ace Indian shuttlers K Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, H S Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth will start their campaign in men's singles, while Tanvi Lad will be the lone Indian competitor in women's singles.