Shuttlers Praneeth, Manu-Sumeeth win Canada Open titles

India had a double delight at the Canada Open as B. Sai Praneeth and the doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy grabbed their respective title at the $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament here.

Fourth seeded Praneeth was quite brilliant and his opponent South Korea's Lee Hyun II had to play catch up right from the outset on Sunday. The 23-year-old took the first game 21-12 and then came up with another dominating performance in the second game to breeze past Hyun 21-10 in just 28 minutes.

The Rio Olympics bound pair of Manu and Sumeeth, who were the top seeds in the competition also easily skipped past the challenge of local pair Adrian Liu and Toby Ng. The Indian duo grabbed the tie 21-8, 21-14 in just 25 minutes.

Liu and Toby could only manage to come close to their opponents twice in the two games when they were locked at 3-3 in both. But then Manu and Sumeeth raced ahead at the Markin MacPhail Centre.

Praneeth has been unlucky in the recent years, either indifferent form or injuries have always played a role in his early exits from top competitions. But he has shown flashes of his brilliance time and again.

In 2013 he had come out on top against 2003 All England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia at Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold tournament.

At the All England Championships this year, Praneeth beat two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the first round.

Though he could not grab a podium finish there, he made amends here on Sunday by holding aloft his maiden Grand Prix trophy.

--IANS

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