Korea Open: Ajay Jayaram, Sai Praneeth enter second round; other Indian shuttlers ousted

Seoul: Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the men’s singles second round of the Korea Open in what turned out to be a mixed day for India at the USD 600,000 Super Series badminton tournament. While Jayaram and Praneeth crossed the opening hurdle, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, H S Prannoy and Tanvi Lad fought equally hard in gruelling three-set games before bowing out of the tournament.

Jayaram, who turned 29 today, celebrated his birthday with a 23-21 21-18 win over Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin in a 45-minute battle. The Mumbai shuttler, who had lost to Jin at the Malaysia Masters last year, will next face China’s Huang Yuxiang. Praneeth too edged out Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen-hao 21-13 12-21 21-15 in another match that last over an hour. He will next take on Korea’s Son Wan Ho, seeded sixth. However, Rio Olympics quarter-finalist Srikanth, seeded 8th, suffered a narrow 10-21 24-22 17-21 defeat against Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong, while Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, who played three-game matches on Tuesday, dished out another superb fight before losing 22-20 10-21 13-21 to fourth seeded Chinese Tian Houwei, who had finished as runners-up at All England Championship. Swiss Open champion Prannoy also tried his best but his efforts didn’t fructify as he lost 23-21 17-21 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei in the opening round. The only competitor at women’s singles, Tanvi Lad also showed the stomach to fight before going down 18-21 21-13 18-21 to Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen.