Mulheim (Germany): Indian shuttlers Sathish Karunakaran and Aakarshi Kashyap carved their way forward by advancing into the second round of the German Open Super 300 tournament. S Sankar Muthuswamy was knocked out after suffering a defeat on Wednesday.
World number 50, Satish outplayed Misha Zilberman who was ranked five places better than him. He registered a victory by 21-18, 19-21, 21-19 to move to the pre-quarterfinal. The Indian shuttler will now lock horns against Nhat Nguyen of Ireland. Satish won the men's singles encounter, but he lost his mixed doubles tie with Aadya Variyath .
In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap defeated Polina Buhrove of Ukraine to advance to the next stage. Aakarshi won the match which lasted almost for an hour 21-23, 21-17, 21-11. She will now face Denmark's sixth seed Mia Blichfeldt.
In other results of the day, Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda suffered a loss 17-21, 21-10, 14-21 to Amelie Lehmann and Cara Siebrecht of Germany to crash out of the tournament. Another Indian duo, Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh lost 12-21, 11-21 in two straight sets. In women's singles, Tanya Hemanth was beaten by Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand by 15-21, 13-21.
India's Tressa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand outplayed Chinese Taipei's Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun 18-21, 21-11, 21-13 in their tournament opener. They will now square off against Sona Horinkova and Katerina Zuzakova of Czech Republic.
The Indian contingent will expect their young guns to deliver in the tournament and clock a remarkable performance.
Read More
