Orleans Masters: B Sai Praneeth bows out after straight games loss to Christo Popov; Anupama Upadhaya reaches last eight

Orleans, France: Top seeded Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth bowed out of the men’s singles competition at the Orleans Masters after suffering a shock straight-game defeat against France’s Christo Popov in Orleans on Thursday.

Praneeth lost his pre-quarterfinal match of the Super 100 event 12-21 11-21 in 35 minutes.

He had advanced to the Round of 16 after beating Czech Republic’s Jan Louda on Wednesday.

However, Mithun Manjunath stunned the second seed from Denmak Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 16-21 21-10 21-11 to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals.

Anupama Upadhaya also reached the last-eight stage of the women’s singles competition, beating Lonice Huet of France 21-17 21-16 in 38 minutes.

Ira Sharma lost her women’s singles match 11-21 17-21 to Australia’s Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen, but the seventh seeded Indian duo of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto carved out a win over the Netherlands’ Ties Van Der Lecq and Debora Jille 21-18 22-20.

Earlier, the Indian troika of Kiran George, Meiraba Luwang Maisnam and Manjunath had progressed to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals after contrasting wins in the second round of the tournament.

While George stunned Netherland’s third seed Mark Caljouw 19-21 21-16 23-21, qualifier Meiraba got rid of eighth seed Toby Penty of England 21-16 21-16 and Manjunath prevailed over compatriot Siddharth Pratap Singh 21-14 21-10 in another second round match.

George, who had won the Odisha Super 100 event in January, will face Indonesian qualifier Christian Adinata, Meiraba will meet Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak and Manjunath will taken on second seeded Dane Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus next.

Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam eked out a 21-23 21-12 21-10 win over Danish pairing of Amalie Schulz and Christine Busch to set up a fight against French duo of Flavie Vallet and Emilie Vercelot.

The men’s doubles pair of PS Ravikrishna and Sankar Prasad Udayakumar also made it to the pre-quarterfinals with a 19-21 21-11 21-12 win over German pairing of Marvin Datko and Patrick Scheiel.

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