Shuttlers Sai Praneeth, Arundhati Pantawane qualify for main draw in Singapore

RRising shuttlers Sai Praneeth, P C Thulasi and Arundhati Pantawane qualified for the main draw of the Singapore Super Series after winning their respective qualifying round matches at the Singapore Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.

Praneeth packed off former All England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia 21-13 21-15 in the opening round of men's singles qualifier before getting the better of Riichi Takeshita 21-12 22-20 in 36 minutes in the second match to book a berth in the main draw.

The 20-year-old from Hyderabad will take on world number four Yun Hu of Hong Kong in the opening round of the men's singles event on Wednesday.

In women's singles qualifiers, Arundhati Pantawane first thrashed Russian Anna Astrakhantseva 21-5 21-10 in just 17 minutes, and then went on to register a comfortable 21-14 21-16 victory over local player Xiaoyu Liang in a half-an-hour contest.

While Thulasi posted a hard-fought win over Chochuwong Pornpawee of Thailand 18-21 21-13 21-8 in 51 minutes in the second qualifying match to advance to the next stage.

She earlier defeated Vietnam's Thi Trang (B) Vu 21-18 21-17 in 39 minutes in the first qualifier.

Arundhati will square off against Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria in the opening round of women's singles and Thulasi will face Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia tomorrow.

Earlier, H S Prannoy and Arvind Bhat failed to cross the first hurdle after suffering defeats in their respective men's singles opening round qualifiers.

While Prannoy lost 21-19 19-21 12-21 to Yong Zhao Ashton Chen of Singapore, Arvind went down 21-19 9-21 15-21 to Hong Kong's Nan Wei.

New Indian women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Prajakta Sawant also failed to make the main round of the competition after losing to Singaporean combo of Wei Han Tan and Dellis Yuliana 22-20 21-12 in a 27-minute contest.

Prajakta, who plays with Mohd Razif Abdul Latif of Malaysia in the mixed doubles category, lost 16-21 20-22 to Singaporean combo of Zhao Jiang Terry Yeo and Lei Yao to crash out of the tournament.

In the first round of men's doubles qualifiers, the Indian pair of Manish Gupta and Gaurav Venkat went down fighting to Malaysia's Zheng Yi Kok and Keat Zhen Kong 13-21 21-17 11-21.