On a day most of the Indian contingent lost their opening matches at the Korea Open Super 500, Priyanshu Rajawat, HS Prannoy and the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy picked up a straight-games wins on Wednesday to make it to the second round.
Rajawat beat South Korean qualifier Choi Ji Hoon 21-15, 21-19 in a match that lasted 41 minutes, at the Junnam Stadium in Yeosu. Kapoor-Reddy won 21-17, 21-17 against the Philippines’ Alvin Morada and Alyssa Ysabel Leonardo while Prannoy beat Belgium’s Julien Carraggi 21-13, 21-17.
Off the 13 matches played on Wednesday that featured Indians, these three were the only wins.
The day started off with Ashwini Ponappa and B Sumeeth Reddy losing 21-23, 21-13, 12-21 to South Korea’s Lee Jung Hyun and Song Hyun Cho. Tasnim Mir also suffered a first round defeat to Kim Ga Eun of Korea, losing 11-21, 18-21.
Kiran George, Mithun Manjunath, Aakarshi Kashyap, Tanya Hemanth, Malvika Bansod and Ashmita Chaliha all lost their respective matches in straight games.
PV Sindhu, armed with a new coach Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia, was unable to turn the tide on what has been a forgetful season so far. She lost to world No 22 Pai Yu Po 18-21, 21-10, 13-21.
In a clash between two former world No 1s, Kento Momota saved a match point to beat Srikanth Kidambi 12-21, 24-22, 21-17 in a match that lasted an hour and 14 minutes.
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