India’s Parupalli Kashyap, Saili Rane, and doubles pairs Arjun MR/Shlok Ramchandran, and Arun George/Sanyam Shukla entered the pre-quarterfinals of the SaarLorLux Open BWF Tour Super 100 tournament in Germany on Wednesday.
Eighth seed Kashyap, who had a bye in the first round, was stretched to three games by world No 86 Luis Enrique Penalver of Spain before the Indian won 21-17, 19-21, 21-16. Rane defeated Ukraine’s Natalya Voytsekh 21-19, 21-16 to set up a meeting with Russia’s Anastasiia Semenova.
Arun George and Sanyam Shukla progressed with a 21-18, 21-17 win over Netherlands’ Jacco Arends and Ruben Jille. Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran thrashed Netherlands’ Vincent Braaksma and Switzerland’s Andreas Zbinden 21-9, 21-5 to cross their opening hurdle.
Arun and Sanyam, who have won three International Series titles so far, will face the fourth seeded German pair of Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Emil Seidel, while Arjun and Shlok, who clinched the Hellas Open title earlier this month, will take on the Chinese duo of Huang Kaixiang and Wang Zekang.
It was curtains for India’s women’s singles players Prashi Joshi and Anura Prabhudesai as they both lost their openers. While top seed Gao Fangjie of China ended Prashi’s campaign with a 21-6, 21-12 win, Anura lost 12-21, 13-21 to eighth seeded Linda Zetchiri of Bulgaria.
With inputs from PTI