El Monte (USA): Indian shuttlers had another good day at the US Open with six of them advancing to the singles pre-quarterfinals of the $120,000 Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here. In men’s singles, sixth seed B. Sai Praneeth, who clinched the Canada Open Grand Prix last week at Calgary, defeated Canada’s B.R. Sankeerth 21-15, 21-7 to set up a clash with Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai, who ended the campaign of India’s RMV Gurusaidutt 21-17, 21-12 in another match.
Fifth seed H.S. Prannoy brushed aside Ireland’s Joshua Magee 21-9, 21-8 in a lop-sided contest and will take on Canada Open finalist Korea’s Lee Hyun Il. Young Pratul Joshi disposed off Czech Republic’s Milan Ludik 21-18, 21-13 and will fight it out against fellow Indian Anand Pawar who defeated Austria’s David Obernosterer 21-12, 21-9 in another match.
Fourth seed Ajay Jayaram, who had hurt his shoulder at Calgary last week, also prevailed over Estonia’s Raul Must 21-14, 21-9 and will take on Pedro Martins of Portugal next. “Good win today! Glad that my shoulder held up well. Looking to keep the momentum going,” he tweeted later. In women’s singles, Tanvi Lad ended the run of Guatemala’s Nikte Alej-andra Sotomayor 21-6, 21-9 to set up a clash with USA’s Beiwen Zhang, seeded fifth. Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, however, had to swallow a bitter pill after her gallant fight ended with a narrow 19-21, 21-15, 18-21 loss to Ayumi Mine of Japan.
Among others, Rio-bound Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will take on the Japanese combo of Kenya Mitsuhashi and Yuta Watanabe, while top seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa gave a walkover in women’s doubles after the latter was laid low by a bout of viral fever. Another women’s doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and S. Poorvisha Ram will play against American combo of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and his men’s doubles partner Akshay Dewalkar and mixed doubles pair of Pranaav and N Sikki Reddy also withdrew from the event.
