B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma had little trouble reaching the second round of the New Zealand Open Super 300 tournament in Auckland after winning their opening matches in straight games on Wednesday.
Third seed Sai Praneeth coasted through the first game against Misha Zilberman 21-11, before the Israeli mounted a fight back in the second and stretched the Indian right to the end. Sai Praneeth eventually won the game 21-19 to seal his progress.
Fifth seed Sameer Verma had no trouble against Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro, beating him 21-8, 21-10 in less than half an hour. Sameer’s sibling Sourabh Verma, however, succumbed to a shock three-game defeat against New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota, ranked 145 in the world. Manota won 21-19, 14-21, 21-19.
Ajay Jayaram got the better of fourth seed Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei 21-23, 21-12, 21-18. Ajay is mounting a comeback into the international circuit after a hamstring injury ruined the second half of his 2017 season and saw his ranking plummet from the top 20 to now 77.
Former junior world No 1 Lakshya Sen, who also returned to the circuit last month following a shoulder injury, beat Malaysia’s June Wei Cheam in straight games 21-11, 21-16 to book a second-round clash with top seed Lin Dan. The legendary Chinese shuttler also won his first-round match in straight games against Japan’s Takuma Ueda.
Among the Indian singles shuttlers to lose on the day were the young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka, Sai Uttejitha Rao, Subhankar Dey, and Karan Rajan Rajarajan.
Over in the doubles, Meghna J and Poorvisha Ram reached the second round after beating a local pair in straight games. However, it wasn’t good news for men’s doubles eighth seeds Francis Alwin and K Nandagopal, who lost to Indonesia’s Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Frengky Wijaya Putra 15-21, 13-21.
Fifth seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy had no trouble against a local pair, winning in straight games, while MR Arjun and Shlok Ramchandran lost 21-21, 14-21 to Indonesia’s Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani. Rohan Kapoor and Shivam Sharma also lost to seventh seeds He Jinting and Tan Qiang in straight games: 13-21, 13-21.
