India enjoyed a mixed day at the Canada Open Grand Prix on Wednesday with as many as seven victories, but several losses as well. HS Prannoy, Karan Rajarajan, Abhisekh Yelegar, G Ruthvika won their singles matches while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy, Meghna Jakkampudi and Tarun Kona, and Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy were victorious in doubles.
Second seed Prannoy was stretched to three games in one of toughest matches of the day as he took 68 minutes to finally beat his plucky opponent, Kieran Merrilees from Scotland. In a see-sawing game that saw momentum being shifted, Prannoy narrowly edged out the Scot 21-17, 16-21, 21-15.
Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy, the defending champions in Canada, started their campaign with a simple 21-15, 21-19 win over Japan’s Kohei Gondo and Tatsuya Watanbe in just under half an hour. The Indians sealed a comfortable win as they seek to defend their title.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy notched a straightforward win over Daniel La Torre Regal and Danica Nishimura. It took the second seeds just 24 minutes to win 21,10, 21-19, despite the tougher contest in the second game.
The mixed doubles pair of Tarun Kona and Meghana Jakkampudi notched a stunning win over eight seeds and local contenders Nyl Yakura and Brittney Tam. The Indians held their nerve in a close second game to upset the seeded Canadians 21-13, 22-20 and advance to the next round.
G Ruthvika Shivani also advanced in the women’s singles with a hard-fought win over Korean Ga Eun Kim. The Indian lost first game by a huge margin, clawed back to claim the close second game and ultimately stuck through to win the third and the match. Ruthvika’s 6-21, 21-19, 21-13 win took 46 minutes but she sailed through in the tough three-setter.
Abhisekh Yelegar triumphed over American Howard Shu is a keenly fugh match. The Indian needed almost an hour to beat Shu in the contest and ultimately prevailed 21-10, 19-21, 21-17 to notch a memorable win. Another men’s singles player, Karan Rajarajan, got the better of England’s Sam Parsons 21-16, 21-14.
However, India were on the losing end of some tough matches as well. Parupalli Kashyap, seeded 16th, went down to Japan’s Koki Watanabe after a tough three-game match. The Indian seed, who had cruised through the first round, played for almost 50 minutes before bowing out with a 10-21, 21-10, 15-21 loss.
Eight seeded Indian pair Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha s Ram were lost their women’s doubles match to the Japanese pair of Arisa Higashino and Kie Nakanishi. The seeded duo went down 21-12, 21-6 in 27 minutes.
Kuhoo Garg and Ningshi Block Hazarika had a terrible outing against top seeds Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva. The Indian pair could only a ombined 10 points against the Bulgarians as they crashed out in 23 minutes in their women’s doubles match with a 21-7, 21-3 defeat.
Sarang Lakhanee, ranked 198th in the world, was up against Koream top Hyun Il Lee who overpowered him in 25 minutes. The Indian put up some fight in the first game but surrendered the second to lose 21-12, 21-6.
Additionally, Sai Uttejitha Rao, Rituparna Das, Reshma Karthik and the pair of Francis Alwin and Tarun Kona also lost their matches.
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