Indian shuttlers started on a positive note at the Australian Open with second seed B Sai Praneeth and fourth seed Sameer Verma progressing to the second round of the men’s singles event in Sydney on Wednesday. While Praneeth beat Israel’s Misha Zilberman in straight games 21-17, 21-14, Sameer had to toil hard to get the better of New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota 13-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the opening round of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300 event. Sameer’s brother, Sourabh Verma, however, suffered a hard-fought 19-21 21-17 21-12 defeat at the hands of Japan’s Takuma Ueda. However, another Indian pair of Francis Alwin and K Nandgopal, seeded eighth, trailed 28-30, 8-7 before conceding their first round match midway. The only Indian pair to feature in the women’s doubles, Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram entered the second round with a comfortable 21-10, 21-16 win over Australia’s Maggie Chan and Jodee Vega.

Source: Hindustan Times May 09, 2018 11:23 UTC