Gwangju (Korea), November 20: India made a promising start at the Korea Masters as Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma advanced to the second round of the men's singles competition in Gwangju, Korea on Wednesday (November 20).
The sixth seed Srikanth defeated Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-18 21-17 in match that lasted 37 minutes.
The former world no.1 Srikanth now enjoys a dominant 11-3 head-to-head record over the Hong Kong shuttler. He will face Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the second round.
Sameer Verma also reached the second round after his opponent Japan's Kazumasa Sakai retired midway with the score reading 11-8 in favour of the Indian. Sameer will take on Donghun in the second round.
However, it was end of the road for Sourabh Verma, who went down after winning the first game to local favourite Kim Donghun 21-13 12-21 13-21.