Second seed Kidambi Srikanth was stunned Iskandar Zulkarnain of Malaysia in the pre-quarterfinals of the India Open on Thursday. The World No 3 lost 19-21, 17-21 to Zulkarnain, who is ranked no 85, in round two of the tournament.
Parupalli Kashyap, Sameer Verma and mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa notched up thrilling three-game wins to enter the quarter-finals. Kashyap reached the quarter-finals after beating compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-19, 19-21, 21-12.
Coming back after recovering from a shoulder injury, Sameer also dished out an attacking game to see off former World No 3 and 2014 World Championship bronze medalist Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-18, 19-21, 21-17.
Unseeded pair of Satwik and Ashwini then registered a stunning 21-16, 15-21, 23-21 win over third seeded Malaysian combo of Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing.
The duo blew four match points before recovering in time to reach their first quarter-finals of a major tournament.
Eighth seeded Indian duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also entered the quarter-finals after seeing off Malaysian-Indian pair of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-10, 21-19. Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy too progressed to the last eight with a 21-11, 21-15 win over compatriots Tushar Sharma and Chandrabhusan Tripathi.
Earlier, unheralded Mugdha Agrey’s campaign ended with a 12-21, 16-21 loss against fifth seeded Beiwen Zhang of USA, while eighth seeded Spaniard Beatriz Corrales ended Ruthvika Shivani Gadde’s run with a 21-19, 21-16 win.
Iceland International winners Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg also lost 10-21, 11-21 to fifth seeded Danish pair of Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen.
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