BADMINTON Praneeth, Verma in Round 3

New Delhi, May 31: Sai Praneeth and Sourabh Verma advanced to the third round of the $120,000 Thailand Grand Prix Gold with contrasting wins in the men’s singles in Bangkok on Wednesday.

Sourabh, seeded 12th, prevailed over compatriot Anand Pawar 21-17, 20-22, 21-14, while third seed Praneeth defeated Malaysia’s R. Satheishtharan 21-15, 21-13.

Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka reached the second round with a 13-21, 24-22, 27 -25 win over Indonesia’s Jesica Muljati in women’s singles.

P. Kashyap, Shreyansh Jaiswal and Subhankar Dey, however, lost their singles matches, while Reshma Karthik and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde faltered in the opening round women’s singles.

Kashyap was beaten by Marc Zwiebler of Germany 14-21, 18-21, in a match that took place in less than 12 hours of his first round clash. He had defeated Slovekia’s Milan Dratva 21-6 21-14 in his opening match.

Jaiswal went down 921, 18-21 to local boy Suppanyu Avihingsanon, while Malaysian Daren Liew ended Dey’s campaign with a 10-21, 21-15 21-19 win.

Karthik lost 14-21, 12-21 to Indonesia’s Susanto Yulia Yosephin, Gadde went down 18-21, 11-21 to another Indonesian Sri Fatmawati.

In women’s doubles, Meghana Jakkam-pudi and Poorvisha S. Ram also crashed out, losing 10-21, 18-21 to Indonesia’s Tania Oktaviani Kusumah and Nisak Puji Lestari.