Vladivostock (Russia): India had a mixed day in office at the Russia Open badminton tournament as six singles shuttlers, including Sourabh Verma and Rituparna Das, progressed to the pre-quarterfinals here, Wednesday.
Eighth seed Sourabh, defeated compatriot Rahul Yadav Chittaboina 23-21, 21-11 in the men’s segment, while former national champion Rituparna dumped local hope Victoria Slobodyanyuk 21-11, 21-18 in a women’s singles contest.
Also sealing the pre-quarterfinal spots were Siddharth Pratap Singh, fifth seed Subhankar Dey, seventh seed Mugdha Agrey and Vrushali Gummadi, while the men’s doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla also entered the third round.
However, it was curtains for senior shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, Parupalli Kashyap and RMV Gurusaidutt as they suffered contrasting losses in the second round.
While Subhankar ended Jayaram’s campaign with a thrilling 15-21, 21-14, 21-15 win, fourth seed Kashyap lost 12-21, 11-21 to Japan’s Ryotaro Maruo and Russia’s Vladimir Malkov, seeded second, brushed aside Gurusaidutt 21-14, 21-8 in another match. Siddharth then saw off another fellow Indian Bodhit Joshi 21-8, 21-14 to set up a clash with compatriot Subhankar.
In women’s singles, Mugdha beat Malaysia’s Yin Fun Lim 21-16, 21-19, while Vrushali accounted for Russia’s Elena Komendrovskaja with a 21-11, 21-16 win.
Arun and Sanyam, who had played well at the Thomas Cup Final, defeated the local pair of Vladimir Nikulov and Artem Serpionov 21-15, 21-15 to set up a meeting with Canada’s Jeffrey Lam and England’s Hin Shun Wong.
Other results
Pratul Joshi lost to Misha Zilberman
12-21, 21-18, 13-21
Chirag lost to Pablo Abain
14-21, 21-16 16-21
Sai Uttejitha Rao lost to Byeol Lim Lee
21-14, 15-21, 18-21
