Big guns, barring Prannoy, advance at India Open

Defending champion P.V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashayp and the women's doubles seeded pairs of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy and Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S. Ram entered the second round of the India Open BWF World Tour 500 here on Wednesday.

Olympic champion Carolina Marin, Thailand's superstar Ratchnaok Intanon, third seed Chou Tien Chen from Chinese Taipei and Chinese fourth seed Shi Yuqi also advanced to the next round at the Siri Fort Complex.

Fifth seed H.S. Prannoy, however, hobbled out of the tournament, losing to qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-4, 21-6. Battling foot corns, he struggled to get his game going and barely put up a fight. For Shreyansh, though, it was a new high, entering the second round of the tournament for the first time.

In the second round, Shreyansh will run into Parupalli Kashyap, who defeated Denmak's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-14, 21-18.

Sindhu downed Denmark's Natalia Rohde 21-10, 21-13. The Indian top seed will meet Linda Zetchiri in the next round after the Bulgarian defeated Vaidehi Choudhari 21-19, 21-15.

Fourth seed Saina cruised past Sofie Holmboe Dahl of Denmark 21-15, 21-9, while Marin upstaged Thailand's Mattana Hemrachatanun 21-15, 21-11.

Saina, the former World No. 1, will face another Danish player Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in the second round.

In the men's section, second seed Srikanth, who is making a comeback after an injury layoff, got past Hong Hong's Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-17, 21-18.

Srikant next meets qualifier Isqandar Zulkarnain of Malaysia, who upset Denmark's Emil Holst 21-15, 21-17.

Chou Tien defeated Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-16, 21-15, Shi Yuqi went past Sourab Verma 21-19, 21-11 while eighth seed Sai Praneeth got the better of England's Rajeev Ouseph 21-11, 17-21, 21-17 in the other men's singles featuring the seeded players.

In the men's doubles, the experienced men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy defeated Adarsh Kumar and Jagadish Yadav 21-7, 21-13.

The young pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Hong Kong's Chang Tak Ching and Hee Chun Mak 21-18, 21-14.

Top seeds in the men's doubles Indonesia's Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya and women's doubles star pair of Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen from Denmark also made it to the second round with ease.

Sixth seeded women's doubles pair of Ashwini-Sikki defeated local qualifiers Shenan Christian and Riya Gajjar 21-9, 21-11 in the opening round.

India's seventh seeds Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S. Ram defeated Saruni Sharma, Mayuri Yadav 21-12, 21-12.

India's mixed doubles pairings of Satwik-Ashwini defeated Raju Mohamed Rehan and J. Anees Kowsar 21-9, 21-10.

Pranaav-Sikki defeated Indonesian Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 16-21, 21-17, 21-17.

--IANS

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