Indian shuttlers Jayaram, Praneeth enter Korea Open second round

TIL Desk Sports/ Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the men’s singles second round of the Korea Open in what turned out to be a mixed day for India at the USD 600,000 Super Series badminton tournament. While Jayaram and Praneeth crossed the opening hurdle, K Srikanth, P Kashyap, H S Prannoy and Tanvi Lad fought equally hard in gruelling three-set games before bowing out of the tournament here.

Jayaram, who turned 29 today, celebrated his birthday with a 23-21 21-18 win over Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin in a 45-minute battle. The Mumbai shuttler, who had lost to Jin at the Malaysia Masters last year, will next face China’s Huang Yuxiang. Praneeth too edged out Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen-hao 21-13 12-21 21-15 in another match that last over an hour. He will next take on Korea’s Son Wan Ho, seeded sixth.

However, Rio Olympics quarterfinalist Srikanth, seeded 8th, suffered a narrow 10-21 24-22 17-21 defeat against Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong, while Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, who played three-game matches yesterday, dished out another superb fight before losing 22-20 10-21 13-21 to fourth seeded Chinese Tian Houwei, who had finished as runners-up at All England Championship.