Indian shuttlers sail into Canada Open pre-quarters

India had an easy outing at the $55,000 Canada Open badminton tournament as all the shuttlers entered the third round of their respective categories here.

In men's singles, top seed Ajay Jayaram came back from a game down to beat local boy Martin Giuffre 17-21, 21-17, 21-13 in 54 minutes in the second round match. He will next face Austria's David Obernosterer in the pre-quarterfinals.

Second seed H.S. Prannoy had a similar outing against Sweden's Mattias Borg before the Indian bounced back to win 13-21, 21-11, 21-15 in another men's singles match. He will next take on B R Sankeerth of Canada.

Promising R.M.V. Gurusaidutt thrashed local boy Jonathan Lai 21-8, 21-6 to move into the third round and face eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia.

Fourth seed B Sai Praneeth edged past Chinese Taipei's Kan Chao Yu 26-24, 21-16 to set up a clash against Wenchao Shi of Canada.

Young shuttler Pratul Joshi registered an easy 21-13 21-12 win over Scotland's Alistair Casey and will next face fellow Indian Harsheel Dani.

In women's singles, 2015 National Champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde defeated local player Kyleigh O' Donoghue 21-14 21-14. She will next face Austria's Elisabeth Baldauf.

Runner-up at 2016 senior Nationals, Tanvi Lad also made it to the pre-quarterfinals after defeating Denmark's Julie Finne-Ipsen 21-17 21-10 and will face Maya Chen of USA next.

In mixed doubles, Manu Attri and Ashwini Ponnappa beat the local pair of Byron Holcek and Erin O'Donoghue 21-13 21-14 to set up a clash with another local pair of Jonathan Lai and Michelle Tong.

Rio-bound top seeded Indian men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face the Canadian combo of Timothy Chiu and Jason Ho-Shue in the pre-quarters.

--IANS

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