File photo of Kidambi Srikanth© AFP
Kidambi Srikanth beat compatriot HS Prannoy in two hard-fought games to enter the men’s singles second round of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Wednesday. The world No. 49 Srikanth, who won 23-21 23-21, was better at crucial points against world No. 28 Prannoy in both games as the contest lasted 48 minutes. Srikanth now enjoys a 7-3 head-to-head record against Prannoy in international competitions. In another men’s singles match, world No. 64 Shankar Subramanian beat Magnus Joahnnsen 21-5 21-16 in just 38 minutes.
In another all-India affair at the St Jakobshalle Indoor arena, unfancied Isharani Barua, ranked 78th in BWF list, upset fellow Indian Aakarshi Kashyap in a first-round women’s singles match that lasted 68 minutes.
Isharani won 18-21 21-17 22-20 to enter the second round of the USD 250,000 event.
However, some of the other Indians in fray lost their respective opening round games.
Malvika Bansod lost her women’s singles match to world No. 20 Michelle Li of Canada 22-20 14-21 19-21. Line Christophersen of Denmark beat Rakshitha Ramraj 21-11 21-17.
In the men’s singles, Kenta Nishimoto, the world No. 13 from Japan, beat Ayush Shetty 21-15 21-19.
In the mixed doubles, Asith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh lost 10-21 9-21 to Yi Jun Zhu and Chi Zhang of China.
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