New Zealand Open: HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap advance; curtains for Ajay Jayaram
Auckland: Newly-crowned US Open winner H S Prannoy and Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the second round but it was curtains for World Championship-bound Ajay Jayaram in the opening round of the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold in Auckland on Tuesday.
Fourth seed Prannoy defeated Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-14 21-16, while 15th seed Kashyap brushed aside Indonesia's Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka 21-5 21-10 in the men's singles competition. Prannoy will cross swords with Indonesia's Firman Abdul Kholik and Kashyap will square off against local shuttler Oscar Guo on Wednesday.
Young shuttlers Siril Verma, Pratul Joshi, Sourabh Verma, Neeraj Vashist and Sahil Sipani also made positive starts to their campaign in the USD 120,000 event.
Seventh seed Sourabh beat Australian Nathan Tang 21-17 21-15, 16th seed Siril defeated Indonesia's Riyanto Subagja 21-13 21-12, Pratul dumped local shuttler Daxxon Vong 21-10 21-13, Neeraj thrashed Indonesia's Androw Yunanto 21-8 21-9, and Sahil surpassed New Zealand's Joshua Feng 21-10 21-10 in other men's singles matches.
However, Jayaram suffered a shocking 19-21 13-21 loss to Chia Hung Lu of Chinese Taipei in another men's singles match. Pratul faces top seed Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei, Neeraj takes on Australian Anthony Joe, Sourabh will fight it out with Indonesia's Henrikho Kho Wibowo, Sahil meets 11th seed Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei, Siril will play against Indonesia's Saputra Vicky Angga.
Among other Indians in fray, it was over for Siddharath Thakur, Sachin Rawat, Arun Kumar Ashok Kumar in men's singles. Sachin lost 12-21 8-21 to Malaysia's Giap Chin Goh, while Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu defeated Siddharath Thakur 23-21 21 -14, Arun Kumar Ashok Kumar lost 16-21 12-21 to Saputra Vicky Angga of Indonesia. In the women's singles qualifying round, Sanyogita Ghorpade fought hard before losing 11-21 24-22 19-21 to Xie Yongshi of New Zealand. She had won the opening match against New Zealand's Jahvaya Wheki 21-14 21-9.
