Swiss Open: HS Prannoy, Subhankar Dey win in straight games to advance in 3rd round of men's singles

Basel: Defending champion HS Prannoy and Subhankar Dey advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles competition at the USD 120,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, who clinched their maiden Grand Prix Gold title at Syed Modi Internationals in January, also reached the third round of the mixed doubles event after their opponents gave them a walkover. [caption id=“attachment_3338544” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of HS Prannoy. Twitter: @PRANNOYHSPRI[/caption] In a 43-minute match, fifth-seeded Prannoy trounced Scotland’s Kieran Merrrilees 21-17 21-19 to set up a meeting with 10th seeded Chinese Qiao Bin. Subhankar, who won the Iceland International in January, defeated Slovenia’s Iztok Utrosa 21-17 21-18. The 23-year-old Indian will face Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama. Tsuneyama, who had won the Austrian Open this year, ended the campaign of another Indian Sameer Verma, defeating him 16-21 21-15 21-13 in a battle that lasted one hour and six minutes. Fourth-seeded Indian pair of Pranaav and Sikki reached the pre-quarters after Sweden’s Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom handed them a walkover. Rio Olympians Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 15-21 19-21 loss to top-seeded Chinese combo of Chai Biao and Hong Wei. It was also curtains for Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli in women’s singles after she lost 18-21 8-21 to seventh-seeded Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani. Women’s doubles pair of Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil also crashed out after suffering a 15-21 15-21 loss to German combo of Johanna Goliszewski and Lara Kaepplein. Mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sanjana also lost 16-21 19-21 to France pair of Bastian Kersaudy and Lea Palermo.