The favourite Saina Nehwal started the Indian challenge spearheaded at the Syed Modi International. In her first game at the tournament, she defeated Mauritius’ Kate Foo Kune in the women’s singles 21-10 21-10.
Ace badminton shuttler Parupalli Kashyap also won his first-round game against Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk by 21-14, 21-12. Kashyap swept away the game, way too easily in n one-sided match.
Both Saina and Parupalli gave India a positive start at the Syed Modi World Tour Super 300, being played in Lucknow.
Defending champions Pranaav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy made an exit in the mixed doubles opening round of the tournament. The top-seeded duo lost to Ren Xiangyu and Zhou Chaomin by 14-21, 11-21 in just 31 minutes.
Olympic bronze medalist Saina will now be facing her counterpart Amolika Singh Sisodiya in the next game.
Parupalli Kashyap will be playing against Firman Abdul Kholik of Indonesia.
Shubhankar Dey has also started his maiden innings at the tournament event, quite well. He defeated Sweden’s Felix Burestedt 21-15, 21-13, thus setting up his next match against China’s Lu Guangzu.
Another top badminton player B Sai Praneeth has also crossed his first hurdle after beating Sergey Sirant of Russia by 21-12 21-10.
Praneeth will next face off against Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia.
Among other players, Rituparna Das won against Russia’s Natalia Perminvova and will next face Shruti Mundada.
The champion duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also notched an easy win against Krishna Prasad Garaga and Rutaparna Panda in the mixed doubles opening round.
Also, Prashi Joshi, Salil Rane and Riya Mukherjee made it to their respective singles second round.
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