Syed Modi International Badminton Championships: Srikanth, Sourabh in Quarters; Curtains For Lakshya, Sai Praneeth And Jayaram

It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships 2019 in Lucknow with Kidambi Srikanth and Sourabh Verma progressing to the quarters but it was game over for Lakshya Sen, B Sai Praneeth and Ajay Jayaram.

2016 champion Srikanth edged past compatriot Parupalli Kashyap 18-21, 22-20, 21-16 and will next meet seventh seed Son Wan Ho of Korea in the men’s singles event.

Sourabh, a winner at two Super 100 events in Hyderabad and Vietnam, also defeated a fellow Indian Alap Mishra 21-11, 21-18 and next faces Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn,

Vitidsarn had beaten World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth 21-11, 21-17.

It was curtains for 18-year-old Lakshya as well who has been in superb form having won the Belgian International, Dutch Open, SaarLorLux Open and Scottish Open last week. He went down to the experienced former world No. 1 Son Wan Ho.

Ajay Jayaram also bowed out from the tournament with aa heart-breaking 18-21, 21-14, 28-30 loss to China’s Zhao Jun Peng.

19-year-old Siril Verma, a silver medalist at the 2015 World Junior Championships, lost 9-21, 22-24 to Heo Kwang Hee of Korea.

The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy retired when they were trailing 0-2 in the opening game against English pair of Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith.

However, the young women pair of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker entered the quarterfinals after beating compatriots Riya Mookerjee and Anura Prabhudesai 21-12, 21-15.

Simran and Ritika will face Germany’s Linda Efler and Isabel Herttrich next.

Kuhoo Garg and Anoushka Parikh advanced beating Sheshadri Sanyal and Lavanya Sharma 21-13, 21-6. They will square off against Hong Kong’s NG Wing Yung and Yeung Nga Ting.

Kapil Chaudhary and Akshay Kadam, Maneesha K and Rutaparna Panda were among the other Indians to exit the competition.