Shuttlers Guru, Pratul, reach round 2 of Canada Open

Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Gurusaidutt brushed aside Austria’s R diger Gnedt 21-7 21-6 in just 18 minutes to set up a clash with local shuttler Jonathan Lai in another men’s singles match.

Pratul too defeated Canada’s Byron Holcek 21-13 21-12 without much ado and will take on Alistair Casey of Scotland in the next round.

Harsheel also produced a good show, streamrolling Canada’s Timothy Chiu 21-11 21-14. He doesn’t have a match in the second round as his opponent Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen has withdrawn.

Among other Indians in fray, second seed H S Prannoy will start his campaign against Mattias Borg of Sweden, while top seed Ajay Jayaram will be up against Canada’s Martin Giuffre and fourth seed B Sai Praneeth will play against Kan Chao Yu of Chinese Taipei.