Four India singles shuttlers through to pre-quarters at Canada Open
Four Indian singles shuttlers, including B Sai Praneeth, and rising men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy reached the pre-quarterfinals of the Canada Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Calgary.
The 22-year-old Sai Praneeth, seeded 10th, streamrolled Czech Republic’s Jan Frohlich 21-14 21-16 to set up a match against Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary at the USD 50,000 event.
Ninth seed Ajay Jayaram and 11th seed Anand Pawar also reached the pre-quarterfinals after notching up comfortable straight-game victories in the men’s singles competition.
While Jayaram beat China’s Huang Yuxiang 21-15 21-16 and will next take on Indonesia’s Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo, Pawar prevailed over another Chinese Zhu Siyuan 21-17 21-16 to train his guns against second seed Xue Song of China.
In women’s singles, Tanvi Lad thrashed USA’s Jamie Subandhi 21-11 21-14 and will next meet home favourite and third seed Michelle Li.
Fast rising duo of Manu and Sumeeth, who finished runners-up at the US Open Grand Prix Gold last week, beat local pair of Adrian Liu and Derrick Ng 21-12 15-21 21-12 in a 43-minute battle. The fourth seeded Indians will next play against Chinese Taiei’s Jhe-Huei Lee and Yang Lee.
However, there was heartbreak in store for P C Thulasi in women’s singles competition and men’s doubles combo of K Dilshad and Kona Tarun.
While Thulasi suffered a 8-21 11-21 loss against Japan’s Yui Hashimoto, Dilshad and Tarun squandered a first-game lead to go down fighting 21-14 12-21 17-21 to local pair of Phillipe Charron and Toby Ng.
