Jayaram, Prannoy cruise into Canada open pre-quarters

India’s shuttlers had another fruitful day at the Canada Open as all of them, including Ajay Jayaram and H.S. Prannoy, entered the third round of the $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, in Calgary.

Top seed Jayaram struggled past Canada’s Martin Giuffre 17-21, 21-17, 21-13 in a 54-minute match to set up a fight with Austria’s David Obernosterer.

Second seed Prannoy also made it to the pre-quarter-finals with a hard-fought 13-21, 21-11, 21-15 win over Sweden’s Mattias Borg. He will next take on B.R. Sankeerth of Canada.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, R.M.V. Gurusaidutt stormed into the next round after an easy 21-8 21-6 win over local shuttler Jonathan Lai and will now face eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia next.

Fourth seed B. Sai Praneeth had to dug deep to eke out a 26-24, 21-16 victory over Chinese Taipei’s Kan Chao Yu to set up a clash against Shi Wenchao of Canada.

Young shuttler Pratul Joshi had a 21-13, 21-12 win over Scotland’s Alistair Casey and will face countryman Harsheel Dani.

In the women’s singles, 2015 national champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde defeated local player Kyleigh O’ Donoghue 21-14, 21-14. She next faces Austria’s Elisabeth Baldauf.

Tanvi Lad also made it to the pre-quarter-finals after defeating Denmark’s Julie Finne-Ipsen 21-17, 21-10 and will face Maya Chen of USA next.

The mixed doubles pair of Manu Attri and Ashwini Ponnappa beat local combo Byron Holcek and Erin O’Donoghue 21-13, 21-14.