Prannoy, Jayaram, Praneeth in R2 at Macau; top seed Srikanth ousted after shock defeat

SEVENTH SEED HS Prannoy, 9th seed Ajay Jayaram, and 15th seed Sai Praneeth  moved into the second round in the men's singles category while top seed Kidambi Srikanth suffered a shock defeat to be ousted from the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold.

Srikanth continued his abysmal performance to be defeated yet again in a first round match, this time to unseeded Christie Jonatan of Indonesia. He lost in straight sets 16-21, 21-23. Just when one thought that Srikanth would make a comeback by winning the second set, the Indonesian stole the match away and it was too late for the Indian to do anything to get back into the game.

Meanwhile, Prannoy beat Sukamta Evert of Indonesia 21-15, 16-21, 21-18 in 1 hour and 3 minutes. By this he took the lead to 2-0 in the head-to-head count against the Indonesian, who put up a good fight till the very end. The third set was a crucial one as at one point it did look like Evert would take the result in his favour but the Indian shuttler did not give up and won the close tie to set up a meeting with Lin Chia Hsuan of Chinese Taipei.

Praneeth on the other hand won in straight sets against Fikri Ihsandi Hadmadi of Indonesia 21-18, 23-21. Though it was a straight sets victory it wasn't an easy win for the Indian. The Indonesian kept him on the edge till the very end. This was their first encounter and it ended in the Indian's favour. His next opponent is Artyom Savatyugin of Uzbekistan.

It took just 36 minutes for Jayaram to eliminate Tam Chun Hei of Hong Kong 21-6, 25-23. After a complete domination in the first set Jayaram did face a bit of pressure as Chun Hei was not ready to give away the set very easily but the Indian lad too kept his composure and won the set and the match. He next faces Lin Guipu of China.

Secured my 1st win here in Macau today against hongkong's tam chun hei. Not my best game but happy to pull through. Looking forward to trw

— Ajay Jayaram (@ajay_289) November 24, 2015