Jayaram, Prannoy & Praneeth enter 2nd round of Macau Open

Top seed K Srikanth bowed out with a straight-game defeat but three other Indians, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, advanced to the second round of the USD 120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold here on Tuesday.

World number seven Srikanth’s rough patch continued as he made yet another early exit with a 16-21 21-23 loss to Christie Jonatan of Indonesia, ranked 40th in the world, in the opening round here.

However, ninth seed Jayaram, who reached the Korea Super Series final and won the Dutch Open this season, produced a gallant effort to see off Hong Kong’s Tam Chun Hei 21-6 25-23 in another men’s singles event. The Mumbai shuttler will next take on Lin Guipu of China.

Seventh seed Prannoy also played out of his skin to notch up a 21-15 16-21 21-18 win over Indonesia’s Sukamta Evert, while 15th seed B Sai Praneeth beat Indonesia’s Fikri Ihsandi Hadmadi 21-18 23-21.

Prannoy will next take on Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chia Hsuan, while Sai Praneeth will meet Uzbekistan’s Artyom Savatyugin next at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion Macau here.

Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, P V Sindhu, seeded fifth, will open her women’s singles campaign against Kim Hyo Min of Korea on Wednesday, while women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, seeded second, will face Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan.