New York, June 19 (IANS) Indian shuttler B. Sai Praneeth played a brilliant round of badminton to proceed to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold being held at the Suffolk County Community College here.
Sixteenth seed Sai overcame China’s Huang Yuxiang 21-17, 16-21, 21-18 in 58 minutes in what was their first ever encounter on Thursday. The World No.38 will take on Hong Kong’s 12th seed N.G. Ka Long Angus for a place in the last four. Angus won the only match the two played previously in 2012.
Men’s doubles combine of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy played superbly to come up with one of the upsets of the tournament when they beat Japanese second seeds Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata 21-18, 14-21, 21-19 in an hour and two minutes to proceed to the quarters.
This was the Indian pair’s second win in as many meetings over the World No.15 combine. They will next take on English duo of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge for a spot in the semis.
Later, women’s doubles fourth seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa beat Turkey’s Ozge Bayrak and Neslihan Yigit 21-10, 21-18 with ease in 24 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals. They will next face German seventh seeds Johanna Goliszewski and Carla Nelte.
However, it was the end of the road for R.M.V. Gurusaidutt and Ajay Jayaram who lost their respective men’s singles Round 3 matches.
While Japanese ninth seed Takuma Ueda defeated Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Gurusaidutt 22-20, 13-21, 21-16 in an hour and 12 minutes, Chinese Taipei’s top seed Chou Tien Chen took 36 minutes to move past 14th seed Ajay Jayaram 21-18, 21-19.