Canada Open: Indian shuttlers enter third round of Grand Prix badminton tournament

Calgary: India witnessed another fruitful day at the Canada Open as all its shuttlers, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, entered the third round of the USD 55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament at Calgary, Canada. Top seed Jayaram struggled past Canada’s Martin Giuffre 17-21, 21-17, 21-13 in a 54-minute match to set up a fight with Austria’s David Obernosterer. [caption id=“attachment_2864746” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File Photo of Ajay Jayaram. AFP[/caption] Second seed H S Prannoy also made it to the pre-quarters after a hard-fought 13-21, 21-11, 21-15 win over Sweden’s Mattias Borg in another men’s singles match. He will next take on B R Sankeerth of Canada. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, RMV Gurusaidutt also stormed into the next round after an easy 21-8, 21-6 win over local shuttler Jonathan Lai and will now face eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia next. Fourth seed B Sai Praneeth had to dug deep to eke out a 26-24, 21-16 victory over Chinese Taipei’s Kan Chao Yu to set up a clash against Wenchao Shi of Canada. Young shuttler Pratul Joshi also registered a 21-13, 21-12 win over Scotland’s Alistair Casey and his next match will be against 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. Runners-up at 2016 Senior National championship, 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. Among other Indians, mixed doubles pair of Manu Attri and Ashwini Ponnappa beat local combo of Byron Holcek and Erin O’Donoghue 21-13, 21-14 to set up a clash against another local pair of Jonathan Lai and Michelle Tong. Rio-bound Indian men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, top seeded, will face Canadian combo of Timothy Chiu and Jason Ho-Shue.