The Indian badminton mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy, on Wednesday, advanced to the second round of the 2024 Hong Open Super 500 in Kowloon.
The husband-wife duo beat fellow Indians Tarun Kona and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-9, 21-10 in straight games.
The experienced Sumeeth and Sikki needed just 22 minutes as they dominated the proceedings to make quick work of Kona and Kudaravalli in a rather tame contest.
The duo, with this win, joins the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand as the only Indians to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the 2024 Hong Kong Open.
Priyanshu, Kiran exit
Meanwhile, Indian men’s singles shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George both faced first round exits on Wednesday.
Rajawat went down 9-21, 21-16, 9-21 to Japan’s Takuma Obayashi while Kiran lost out to Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei 16-21, 16-21 in 34 minutes.
Elsewhere, the women’s singles shuttlers Tanya Hemanth and Aakarshi Kashyap too suffered opening round losses.
While Tanya lost out to Indonesia’s Komang Ayu Cahya Dewi 16-21, 21-23, Aakarshi went down 15-21, 9-21 in straight games to fifth seeded Aya Ohori of Japan.
The mixed doubles pair of Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh, meanwhile, lost against Chinese Taipei’s Ming Che Lu and Hung En-Tzu 16-20, 20-22.