Mumbai: Today’s tournaments were served as the cocktail of mixed emotions for India. Where on one hand Ajay Jayaram and Sai Praneeth’s victory charged audience with euphoric vibes, yet, on the other hand, Kidambi Srikanth, P Kashyap, H S Prannoy and Tanvi Lad’s defeat stirred dismally.
Ajay Jayaram, got the perfect present on his special day. Jayaram, celebrated his 29th birthday with double joy and vigour after blowing his counterpart Jeon Hyeok Jin of Korea, It was 23-21 21-18 win, in a 45-minute battle. The shuttler from Chennai raised above the expectation. Last year, it was Jin only who defeated him at the Malaysia Masters, but Jayaram’s racket smashed back this time. He will next face China’s Huang Yuxiang.
Praneeth too scuffled hard for an hour to slash his opponent Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen-hao ( 21-13 12-21 21-15). He will next take on Korea’s Son Wan Ho, seeded sixth.
A striking quake came from Rio Olympics quarter-finalist Srikanth, seeded 8th, who suffered a narrow 10-21 24-22 17-21 defeat against Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong. He was also the only Indian to advance for quarter finals at recently conducted Japan Opens. Somewhere, this led to his promising performance at Korea opens, which failed too. Along with him, it was Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, who demolished the bridge of hopes. He played three-game matches on Tuesday, then dished out another superb fight before losing 22-20 10-21 13-21 to fourth seeded Chinese Tian Houwei, who had finished as runners-up at All England Championship.
Our only face at women’s singles, Tanvi Lad fought equally hard before grueling efforts and finally bowing out of the tournament. She went down 18-21 21-13 18-21 to Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen.