Taipei: Young shuttlers from Telangana, Siril Verma and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli reached the pre-quarterfinals of the $2,00,000 Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold in the men’s and women’s singles competition, here on Wednesday.
The 2015 World Junior Championships silver medallist, Siril, who had finished runners-up at the Russian Open last year, saw off local shuttler Chia Hao Lee 16-21, 21-17, 21-17 in a 51-minute match.
The 16th seeded Siril will next face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, who had defeated defending champion Sourabh Verma.
Meanwhile, Krishna Priya, who had won the Under 17 and Under 19 singles titles in the 2013 Hyderabad District Badminton Championship, also dished out a gritty performance to outlast World No. 34 and fourth seeded Chiang Mei Hui of Chinese Taipei 21-17, 20-22, 21-9 in a thrilling women’s singles match.
Sri Krishna who is currently ranked 79 in the World rankings will take on another Taipei shuttler Shuo Yun Sung.
Among others, it was curtains for Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka, 15th seed Abhishek Yelegar, Mumbai’s Harsheel Dani and men’s doubles pair of Nikhar Garg and Ankur Sangpang Rai.
Uttejitha Rao lost 7-21, 17-21 to Korean’s Na Yeong Kim, 14th seed Harsheel went down 12-21, 6-21 to Ha Young Woong of Korea, while Abhishek suffered a 17-21, 21-17, 6-21 loss to Seung Hoon Woo of Korea.
Nikhar and Ankur lost 5-21, 8-21 to local pair of Ko-Chi Chang and Liao Kuan Hao.
