America
Shuttlers Jwala-Ashwini, Sai, Jayaram in Canada Open quarters
Calgary, June 26
The Indian women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa,
men's singles shuttlers B. Sai Praneeth and Ajay Jayaram reached the
quarter-finals of the $50,000 Canada Open Grand Prix at the Markin
MacPhail Centre here.
The 2011 World Championships bronze
medal-winning pair of Jwala-Ashwini on Thursday overcame the Dutch
combination of Samantha Barning and Iris Tabeling 16-21, 21-16, 21-17 in
47 minutes.
Jwala-Ashwini, who matched their career-best
rankings at 13 on Thursday, will face Hong Kong's Chan Kaka Tsz Ka and
Yuen Sin Ying in the last-eight contest.
In the other women's
doubles quarter-final, Indian pair of Pradnya Gadre and N. Sikki Reddy,
who stunned German fourth seeds of Johanna Goliszewski and Carla Nelte
21-15, 21-12, will be up against Hong Kong's Poon Lok Yan and Tse Ying
Suet.
In the men's singles pre-quarter-finals, world No.33 Sai
prevailed over Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne 14-21, 21-15, 21-15 in 57
minutes, while world No.32 Jayaram got the better of Indonesian Wisnu
Yuli Prasetyo 21-12, 17-21, 21-12 in 53 minutes.
In the next
round, Sai faces a tough challenger in Malaysia's former World No.1 Lee
Chong Wei, who has a 3-0 lead in head-to-head record against the
national champion from India.
Two-time Olympics silver medallist
Chong Wei was taken to task by Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent before
the 32-year-old registered a 21-17, 20-22, 21-10 win in an hour and
seven minutes.
Jayaram will face German top seed and world No.14 Marc Zwiebler, who eased past Chinese Taepei's Kuo Ching-Hung 21-13, 21-14.
Another
Indian in this draw, world No.55 Anand Pawar exited the competition
following his 13-21, 15-21 loss to chinese second seed Xue Song.
In
further disappointing results for India, the men's doubles pair of Manu
Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy crashed out against Chinese Taipei's
Jhe-Huei Lee and Yang Lee 19-21, 19-21 in 33 minutes.
Woman singles shuttler Tanvi Lad suffered a tame 14-21, 13-21 defeat against Canadian third seed and world No.15 Michelle Li.
In
the mixed doubles category, Kona Tarun and Sikki lost 15-21, 15-21 in
33 minutes to German top seeds Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels.