Auckland: Newly-crowned US Open winner HS Prannoy and 2014 CWG champion Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the second round but it was curtains for World Championship-bound Ajay Jayaram in the opening round of the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Tuesday.
Fourth seed Prannoy defeated Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-14, 21-16, while 15th seed Kashyap brushed aside the challenge of Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka also from the same country 21-5, 21-10 in their respective men’s singles matches. However, Jayaram suffered a shocking 19-21, 13-21 loss to Chia Hung Lu of Chinese Taipei.
Young shuttlers Siril Verma, Pratul Joshi, Sourabh Verma, Neeraj Vashist and Sahil Sipani also made positive starts to their campaign in the $1,20,000 event.
Seventh seed Sourabh beat Australian Nathan Tang 21-17, 21-15, 16th seed Siril defeated Indonesia’s Riyanto Subagja 21-13, 21-12, Pratul dumped local shuttler Daxxon Vong 21-10, 21-13, Neeraj thrashed Indonesia’s Androw Yunanto 21-8, 21-9 and Sahil surpassed New Zealand’s Joshua Feng 21-10, 21-10 in other men’s singles matches.
Among other Indians in fray, the tournament was over for Siddharath Thakur, Sachin Rawat, Arun Kumar Ashok in men’s singles.
Sachin lost 12-21, 8-21 to Malaysia’s Giap Chin Goh, while Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu defeated Siddharath 23-21, 21-14. In another match, Arun failed to put up a fight and lost 16-21, 12-21 to Saputra Vicky Angga of Indonesia.
In the women’s singles qualifying rounds, Sanyogita Ghorpade fought hard before losing 11-21, 24-22 19-21 to Xie Yongshi of New Zealand. She had won the opening match against New Zealand’s Jahvaya Wheki 21-14, 21-9.
