03 July,2016 11:28 AM IST | | PTI
Duo notch up contrasting wins in Canada Open quarters; HS Pranoy beaten
Canada open GP
Calgary (Canada): Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the semi-finals of the Canada Open Grand Prix badminton tournament after notching up contrasting victories in the men's singles competition here on Saturday.
Ajay Jayaram had to battle Indian Harsheel Dani during a 21-18, 19-21, 21-8 quarter-final win at the Canada Open in Calgary on Saturday. pic/afp
Top seeded Jayaram defeated fellow Indian Harsheel Dani 21-18, 19-21, 21-8 in a hard-fought battle that lasted 47 minutes. Jayaram will face Korea's Lee Hyun Il, seeded third, in the semi-finals.
Fourth seed Praneeth too made it to the final four after brushing aside eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia 21-14, 21-16 in just 33 minutes to set up a clash against seventh seeded Frenchman Brice Leverdez, who had ended the campaign of second seed HS Prannoy of India.
B Sai Praneeth
Prannoy played out of skin before going down fighting 22-20, 21-23, 18-21 to Leverdez.
In women's singles, it was curtains for Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and Tanvi Lad. While Ruthvika suffered a 16-21, 12-21 loss to fourth seed Linda Zetchiri of Bulgaria, Tanvi fought hard before going down 16-21, 21-15, 10-21 to third seed Iris Wang of USA.
Among other Indians in the fray, top seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who have qualified for Rio Olympics, were given a walkover by Canada's Ted (Chin Tai) Chen and Chinese Taipei's Liao Chao Hsiang in the men's doubles event.
The Indian duo will play Indonesia's Andrei Adistia and Canada's Dong Adam (Xingyu). Women's doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, seeded top, gave a walkover to Leanne Choo of Australia and Rachel Honderich.
In another women's doubles match, Jakkampudi Meghana and S Poorvisha Ram suffered a narrow 21-18, 16-21, 20-22 loss to Hung Yi-Ting and Su Hsiang Ling of Chinese Taipei.
