Bangkok: Saina Nehwal made a winning return to the international circuit with a 21-5, 21-10 thrashing of Slovakia’s Martina Repiska in her first round match of the Thailand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Wednesday. Also advancing were
B Sai Praneeth and Sourabh Verma after notching up contrasting wins in the men’s singles. Saina will now play Malaysia’s Ying Ying Lee in the pre-quarters.
Sourabh, seeded 12th, survived a challenge from compatriot Anand Pawar before winning 21-17, 20-22, 21-14, while third seed Praneeth defeated Malaysia’s R Satheishtharan 21-15, 21-13 in another match.
In the women’s singles, upcoming shuttler Sai Uttejitha Rao dished out a gallant display to reach the second round with a 13-21, 24-22, 27-25 win over Indonesia’s Jesica Muljati.
However, it turned out to be a dismal day for other Indians with Parupalli Kashyap, Shreyansh Jaiswal and Subhankar Dey biting the dust in men’s singles while Reshma Karthik and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde faltered in women’s
singles.
Kashyap went down 14-21, 18-21 to second-seeded Marc Zwiebler of Germany in his second round match, which took place in less than 12 hours of his first-round clash.
Shreyansh lost 9-21, 18-21 to local shuttler Suppanyu Avihingsanon, while Malaysian Daren Liew ended Subhankar’s campaign with a 10-21, 21-15, 21-19 win.
While Reshma tamely lost 14-21, 12-21 to Indonesia’s Susanto Yulia Yosephin, her compatriot Ruthvika went down 18-21, 11-21 to another Indonesian player Sri Fatmawati.
The women’s doubles pair of Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram also crashed out after losing 10-21, 18-21 to the Indonesian combo of Tania Oktaviani Kusumah and Nisak Puji Lestari.
PTI
