Seoul, Sept 28: Shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the men’s singles second round of the Korea Open in what turned out to be a mixed day for India at the USD 600,000 Super Series badminton tournament here Wednesday.
However, four other Indians – namely Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, HS Prannoy and Tanvi Lad bowed out of the event losing their respective encounters.
Jayaram celebrated his birthday with a 23-21, 21-18 win over Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin. The Mumbai shuttler will next face China’s Huang Yuxiang.
Praneeth too edged out Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen-hao 21-13, 12-21, 21-15 in another match. He will next take on Korea’s Son Wan Ho.
However, Rio Olympics quarterfinalist Srikanth, seeded eighth, suffered a narrow 10-21, 24-22, 17-21 defeat against Wong Vincent of Hong Kong, while Kashyap dished out another superb fight before losing 22-20, 10-21, 13-21 to fourth-seeded Chinese Tian Houwei.
Swiss Open champion Prannoy lost 23-21, 17-21, 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei in the opening round.
The only competitor in women’s singles, Tanvi Lad went down 18-21, 21-13, 18-21 to Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen.
Press Trust of India
