Praneeth, Prannoy, Thulasi reach 2nd round of Singapore Open

Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth, H S Prannoy and P C Thulasi advanced to the second round of the USD 300,000 Singapore Super Series after registering contrasting victories on the opening day of the main draw here today.
World number 45 Praneeth, who had come close to beating world no. 9 Du Pengyu during the Indian Super Series last week, defeated Malaysia's Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif 21-13 21-15 in half-an-hour in a men's singles match. He is likely to take on Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark next.
H S Prannoy, too, produced a good performance to prevail over Thailand's Thammasin Sitthikom 21-17 14-21 21-11 in another men's singles match at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. He will be up against fifth seed Pengyu tomorrow.

In women's singles, P C Thulasi notched up a 21-13 21-16 win over New Zealand's Anna Rankin to set up a clash with world number two Chinese Yihan Wang, who was the runners-up at the India Super Series last week.
However, Tanvi Lad's campaign ended in the first round with top seed and Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China making mince meat of the Indian during her 21-6 21-11 win in another women's singles match.
Indian men's doubles pair of Alwin Francis and Arun Vishnu put up a fine performance to outwit Chinese Taipei's Jui Wei Liang and Kuan Hao Liao 21-15 16-21 22-20 in a 50-minute match.

However, it was curtains for mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona as they went down 15-21 10-21 to local shuttlers Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo.
Earlier, India's mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Jishnu Sanyal faltered at the qualifiers, losing 14-21 18-21 to Hong Kong's Tang Chun Man and Tsz Ka Chan yesterday.
Top shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap will play later in the day.