Macau Open: Jayaram, Jwala-Ashwini ousted; Praneeth, Prannoy and Sindhu advance
IT WAS THE END OF ROAD for ninth seed Ajay Jayaram and second seed women's doubles pair Jwala Gutta/ Ashwini Ponnappa, as they lost their respective matches at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold in Macau on Wednesday.
Jayaram was playing his second round match in the men's singles category as he was defeated by Lin Guipu of China 11-21, 17-21. The un-seeded Chinese dominated the first set and just when the Indian gained momentum in the second set, the game was over and the result was in Lin's favour.
Jwala/Ashwini continued their run of consecutive defeats in the first rounds, this time by the Japanese pair Yuki Fukushuma/Sayaka Hirota 16-21, 15-21. The Japanese pair did not give the second seeds any room to dominate in the game.
Earlier, Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu moved ahead in their respective categories. 15th seed Praneeth had an easy victory beating Artyom Savatyugin of Uzbekistan 21-11, 21-8. He moves to the third round to face Andre Kurniawan of Indonesia.
On the other hand, seventh seed Prannoy had to fight against Lin Chia Hsuan of Taipei to move ahead, 21-19 21-15. The first set was not an easy one, as Prannoy began both sets trailing but got back into the game towards the end. He next faces Qiao Bin of China in third round.
Two-time defending champion PV Sindhu beat Kim Hyo Min of Korea 21-13, 22-20 to move into the second round. Although the 5th seed had an easy first set, the 20-year old looked under pressure in the second. But Sindhu overcame it and as a result emerged victorious. She will next face Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia.
