It was a day of mixed fortunes for India’s badminton players at the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold tournament as Sai Praneeth sneaked into the quarter-finals after a hard-earned victory while compatriots Ajay Jayaram and R M V Gurusaidutt lost their respective men's singles matches.
Praneeth, seeded 16th, had to toil hard in his pre-quarterfinal match against Huang Yuxiang of China before wrapping up a 21-17, 16-21, 21-18 win in just under two hours at the Suffolk County Community College facility.
He takes on 12th seed Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong for a place in the semi-finals.
There was a also good news in the women’s field as fourth seeded women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa notched up a 21-10, 21-18 straight-game win over Turkish pair of Ozge Bayrak and
Neslihan Yigit to enter the quarter-finals. The India duo next faces seventh seeded German pair of Johanna Goliszewski and Carla Nelte.
In men's doubles, unseeded Indian duo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy shocked second seeded Japanese pair of Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata 21-18, 14-21, 21-19 in their pre-quarterfinal match. They play the English pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge in the quarter-finals.
It was, however, curtains for Gurusaidutt and Jayaram as they lost to Japanese ninth seed Takuma Ueda (20-22 21-13 16-21) and top seed Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen (18-21 19-21) respectively in their pre-quarterfinal matches.
Image: Sai Praneeth
Photograph: Olympic Gold Quest
