Kashyap, Sindhu reach quarters of Nationals

London Olympics quarter-finalist Parupalli Kashyap and defending champion P V Sindhu reached the last-eight stage of the 77th Senior National badminton Championship after posting contrasting wins in the men's and women's singles competition here today.

World number 20 Kashyap remained on course for his maiden National title following his comfortable 21-9 21-11 victory over Suraj R N, while Sindhu, who had stunned London Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the China Masters last month, won after her opponent, 12th seed Saili Rane, retired midway at 21-7 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals at the Sher-e-Kashmir Indoor Stadium.

Young prodigy Shreyansh Jaiswal from Chattisgarh, who had stunned the defending champion in the second round yesterday, continued his good run and notched up a 21-11 21-17 win over Love Kumar of Punjab.

World number 25 Ajay Jayaram survived a scare from 11th seed Pratul Joshi before seeing him off 21-23, 21-14 21-15 in a 50 minute match, while 14th seed RMV Gurusaidutt had an easy outing against unheralded Subhankar Dey, winning it 21-12 21-4.

Sixth seed Nanda Gopal K of Airport Authority of India beat two-time champion and 16th seed Arvind Bhat 23-21 21-19, while Madhya Pradesh's Abhimanyu Singh stunned third seed Mohit Kamat 19-21 21-13 21-9 in 56 minutes.

Second seed Sai Praneeth B also kept his hopes alive after prevailing over Velavan V 21-17 21-13, while two-time former champion Anup Sridhar lost 15-21 15-21 to eight seed Srikanth K.

In the women's singles, top seed Neha Pandit survived a tough test against 16th seed Arathi Sara Sunil of Kerela before prevailing 16-21 21-14 21-14, while National Games champion Arundhati Pantawane also reached the quarterfinals following a 21-11 21-8 victory over Sheshadri Sanyal of West Bengal in 26 minutes.