IMAGE: B Sai Praneeth suffered a first-round exit on Wednesday. Photograph: Matt Roberts/Getty Images
Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth suffered a shock defeat at the hands of fellow Indian Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar in the men’s singles second round at the Vietnam Open Super 100 badminton tournament in Ho Chi Minh on Wednesday.
A former World Championships bronze medallist, Praneeth, who has been struggling for form for the last one year, lost 21-17, 18-21, 13-21 to Satish Kumar to make another early exit from a tournament.
Satish Kumar, who had finished runner-up at Bangladesh International Challenge in December last year, will now face Malaysia’s Ong Ken Yon next.
In other results in the men’s singles, Meiraba Luwang Maisnam eked out a thrilling 21-16, 18-21, 21-14 win over Malaysia’s Kok Jing Hong to set up a fight with Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen, who beat India’s eighth seed Mithun Manjunath 21-17, 21-7 in another match.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian also notched up an sensational win over Indonesian veteran Tommy Sugiarto 14-21, 22-20, 21-12 in the second round.
He will next meet Chinese Chia Hao, who defeated India’s Raghu Mariswamy 21-16, 21-15 in a lop-sided contest.
Harshit Aggarwal defeated Mongolia’s Batdavaa Munkhbat 21-15, 21-13 to be pitted against Japan’s third seed Kodai Naraoka in the third round.
Kiran Kumar Mekala saw off Myanmar’s Phone Pyae Naing 16-21, 21-14, 21-19 and will face Malaysia’s Cheam June Wei next.
In the women’s singles, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde progressed to the pre-quarterfinals after getting a walkover from his opponent and will face Vietnam’s Thi Trang (B) Vu next.
Prerana Neeluri will meet top seed Aya Ohori of Japan in the second round after she opened her campaign with a 21-16 21-14 win over local player Thi Ngoc Lan Nguyen.
Ira Sharma and Rituparna Das also made it to the second round with straight game wins.
While Ira beat Vietnam’s Thi Anh Tran 21-13, 21-14, Rituparna defeated another Vietnamese in Bich Phuong Bhi 21-12, 21-17.
The mixed doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor advanced to the second round after beating compatriots Hariharan Amsakarunan and SS Lakshmi Priyanka Subramanian 14-21, 21-9, 21-12.
Another Indian pair of Bokka Navaneeth and Priya Konjengbam also progressed to the second round.
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