n AGENCY
New York: Sai Praneeth sailed into the quarterfinals after a hard-earned victory while compatriots Ajay Jayaram and R M V Gurusaidutt lost their respective men’s singles matches as Indians had a mixed day at the USD 120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here.
Praneeth, seeded 16th, had to toil hard in his pre-quarterfinal match against Huang Yuxiang of China before emerging 21-17 16-21 21-18 victorious in 58 minutes at the Suffolk County Community College facility. He now takes on 12th seed Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong for a place in the semifinals.
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.
Meanwhile, 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 in 24 minutes to enter the quarterfinals. (PTI)
