press trust of india
New Delhi, March 25: Saina Nehwal, K Srikanth and P Kashyap reached the second round while young Sameer Verma created the biggest upset of the day by stunning World No. 9 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus at the USD 2,75,000 Yonex Sunrise India Super Series badminton tournament here Wednesday.
World No. 2, Saina brushed aside young Riya Mukherjee 21-5, 21-13 in the women’s singles while World No. 4 Srikanth saw off Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-17, 21-16 without breaking much sweat at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here. Saina will next take on compatriot Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, who beat qualifier Rucha Nikam 21-7, 21-6.
CWG Games champion Parupalli Kashyap got into good rhythm after recovering from a hamstring injury with a tricky 16-21, 21-19, 21-18 win over Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao. He next meets Chinese qualifier Xue Song, who beat fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of
Chinese Taipei.
However, it was Sameer, brother of 2011 National Champion Sourabh Verma, who notched up a stunning 21-15, 21-17 win over Denmark’s Hans-Kristian, seeded fifth, to set up a match with RMV Gurusaidutt. Guru prevailed over Korea’s Lee Dong Keun 21-14, 17-21, 23-21 in another match.
Among other Indians in fray, Indonesia Masters winner HS Prannoy set up a clash with World No. 2 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark after beating Misha Zilberman of Israel 22-20, 21-8.
The celebrated women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, however, failed to breach the Chinese wall as they fell 16-21, 18-21 to sixth seeds Ou Dongni and Xiaohan Yu in the opening round.
Second seed Carolina Marin beat India’s Neha Pandit in a late evening match that lasted just 19 minutes.
