AGENCY
EL MONTE (US): Indian shuttlers had anothergood day at the US Open with six of them advancing to thesingles pre-quarterfinals of the USD 120,000 Grand Prix Goldbadminton tournament here.
In men’s singles, sixth seed B Sai Praneeth, who clinchedthe Canada Open Grand Prix last week at Calgary, defeatedCanada’s B R Sankeerth 21-15 21-7 to set up a clash withJapan’s Kazumasa Sakai, who ended the campaign of India’s RMVGurusaidutt 21-17 21-12 in another match.
Fifth seed H S Prannoy brushed aside Ireland’s JoshuaMagee 21-9 21-8 in a lop-sided contest and will take on CanadaOpen finalist Korea’s Lee Hyun Il.
Young Pratul Joshi disposed off Czech Republic’s MilanLudik 21-18 21-13 and will fight it out against fellow IndianAnand Pawar who defeated Austria’s David Obernosterer 21-1221-9 in another match. Fourth seed Ajay Jayaram, who had hurt his shoulder atCalgary last week, also prevailed over Estonia’s Raul Must21-14 21-9 and will take on Pedro Martins of Portugal next.
“Good win today! Glad that my shoulder held up well.
Looking to keep the momentum going,” he tweeted later.
In women’s singles, Tanvi Lad ended the run ofGuatemala’s Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor 21-6 21-9 to set up aclash with USA’s Beiwen Zhang, seeded fifth.
Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, however, had to swallow a bitterpill after her gallant fight ended with a narrow 19-21 21-1518-21 loss to Ayumi Mine of Japan. (PTI)