Subhankar, Rituparna enter pre-quarterfinals of Russia Open

Five Indian shuttlers, including top seed Subhankar Dey and former national champion Rituparna Das advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of their respective singles competition at the Russian Open BWF Tour Super 100 here Wednesday.

In the men's singles event, Subhankar, who had won the SaarLorLux Open last year, defeated England's Hin Shun Wong 21-10 21-6, Siril Verma saw off local shuttler Sergey Sirant 21-15 12-21 21-11 and Rahul Yadav Chittaboina mauled another Russian Anton Ivanov 21-5 21-9 in another match.

Subhankar will face Japan's Kodai Naraoka, Siril meets Slovenia's Miha Ivanic and Rahul will square off against sixth seed Pablo Abian of Spain.

In women's singles, Rituparna beat Singapore's Chua Hui Zhen Grace 21-12 21-8, while Vrushali Gummadi defeated Russia's Alina Kurguzova 21-8 21-9 to enter the pre-quarterfinals.

Rituparna will face fifth seeded Ksenia Polikarpova of Israel while Vrushali will lock horns against seventh seed Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei.

However, Riya Mookerjee lost 11-21 19-21 to third seed Thuy Linh Nguyen of Vietnam, while promising men's singles shuttler Lakshya Sen gave a walkover to Miha Ivanic of Slovenia.