Press Trust of India
Jakarta, June 1: Indian shuttlers had a relatively good day in office as the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and the men’s duo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy progressed to the second round of Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament, here Wednesday.
The star Indian pair of Jwala and Ashwini however, had to play out of their skin to prevail over the Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Ribka Sugiarto 21-7, 20-22, 21-10 in 39 minutes. They next play the sixth-seeded Chinese combination of Yaqiong Huang and Jinhua Tang.
It, however, turned out to be an easy outing for the duo of Manu and Sumeeth Reddy as they defeated Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Alvin Morada of Philippines 21-13, 21-16 to progress to the second round.
However, it was curtains for young Sameer Verma in the men’s singles as he crashed out in the opening round game 11-21, 13-21 against the second seed Lee Chong Wei.
With Sameer’s exit, the Indian challenge came to an end in the men’s singles event. However, in women’s singles eighth-seeded Saina Nehwal will take on Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani in the second round of the women’s singles competition in a late evening match, Wednesday.