Singapore Open: Defending champ B Sai Praneeth bows out, Sourabh Verma Advances

Singapore, July 18: Defending champion B. Sai Praneeth crashed out of the Singapore Open while Sourabh Verma advanced to the next round here on Wednesday.

Sixth seed Praneeth went down 21-16, 16-21, 18-21 to Japan’s Yu Igarashi in a marathon match of 1 hour and 11 minutes while it was a cakewalk for Sourabh as he defeated his compatriot Parupalli Kashyap 21-9 21-6 in straight games in just 15 minutes. It was the end of the road for men’s singles shuttler Gurusaidutt as he went down 14-21, 19-21 to China’s Qiao Bin.

However, singles shuttlers Subhankar Dey, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and Rituparna Das advanced to the second round after defeating their respective opponents in the opening round.

India’s mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy defeated Germany’s Jones Ralfy Jansen and Carla Nelte 21-19, 16-21, 21-12 to enter the second round along with men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

Meanwhile, Mandiraju Anilkumar Raju and Venkat Gaurav Prasad failed to cross the opening round and lost to Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh of Malaysia.

The other pairing of Arjun M.R. and Ramchandran Shlok, Arun George and Sanyam Shulka also crashed out of the meet.

In the women’s doubles category, Ashwini Ponnappa and Reddy bowed out, losing 21-18, 13-21, 14-21 to NG Tsz Yau and Yuen Sin Ying of Hong Kong, in a hard-fought battle. (IANS)