Indian shuttlers continue to shine at US Open

Indian shuttlers continued to shine at the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with six of them advancing to the singles pre-quarterfinals here.

However, R.M.V Gurusaidutt's campaign in men's singles category ended as he went down 17-21, 12-21 to Japan's Kazumasa Sakai on Wednesday night.

Sixth seed B. Sai Praneeth, who clinched the Canada Open Grand Prix last week at Calgary, edged past Canada's B.R. Sankeerth 21-15, 21-7. He will next take on Sakai.

Fifth seed H.S. Prannoy brushed aside Ireland's Joshua Magee 21-9, 21-8 in a lop-sided contest and will take on Canada Open finalist Korea's Lee Hyun Il.

Young Pratul Joshi disposed of the Czech Republic's Milan Ludik 21-18, 21-13 and will fight it out against fellow Indian Anand Pawar, who defeated Austria's David Obernosterer 21-12, 21-9 in another match.

Fourth seed Ajay Jayaram, who had hurt his shoulder at Calgary last week, also prevailed over Estonia's Raul Must 21-14, 21-9 and will take on Pedro Martins of Portugal next.

In women's singles, Tanvi Lad ended the run of Guatemala's Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor 21-6, 21-9 to set up a clash with the US's Beiwen Zhang, seeded fifth.

Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, however, faltered as she went down narrowly 19-21, 21-15, 18-21 to Ayumi Mine of Japan.

In women's doubles, top seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa gave a walkover in women's doubles after the latter was laid low by a bout of viral fever while Jakkampudi Meghana and S. Poorvisha Ram will play against American combo of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee

Rio-bound Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will take on the Japanese combo of Kenya Mitsuhashi and Yuta Watanabe.

Pranaav Jerry Chopra and his men's doubles partner Akshay Dewalkar and mixed doubles pair of Pranaav and N. Sikki Reddy also withdrew from the event.

--IANS

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