Calgary (Canada): It was double bonanza for India at the Canada Open as B. Sai Praneeth and Rio-bound men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy clinched twin crowns after winning their respective title clashes at the $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament here. The 23-year-old Praneeth, seeded fourth, dished out a dominating game to defeat Korea’s Lee Hyun Il 21-12, 21-10 in the men’s singles final that lasted less than half an hour at the Markin MacPhail Centre on Sunday.
Top seeds Manu and Sumeeth Reddy, who became the first Indian men’s doubles pair to qualify for the Rio Olympics, received a big boost when they defeated local combo of Adrian Liu and Toby Ng 21-8, 21-14 in a lop-sided final here. World No. 37 Praneeth hardly broke any sweat against Lee, leading all throughout right from the start to end in both the games. The third seeded Korean couldn’t put up any fight against the Indian, who jumped to a 10-2 lead in the opening game and then kept moving ahead to pocket the game comfortably.
In the second game, Praneeth surged to a 8-0 lead and then kept moving ahead to slam the door on the Korean. On Saturday, Lee had defeated top seed Ajay Jayaram of India 21-9, 21-8 in the semifinals, while Praneeth beat France’s Brice Leverdez 22-20, 19-21, 21-12.
