Lucknow: The stage is set for the maiden appearance of the ‘Indian Shuttle Queen’ Saina Nehwal in a tournament in India ever since she won the Olympic medal in 2012 London earlier this year. The world No.3 was the cynosure of all eyes at the grand opening ceremony of the $120,000 Shaheed Dr KL Garg-Syed Modi India GP Gold Championship here at the BBD UP Academy stadium late on Tuesday.
Earlier, in the qualifying rounds, former National women’s champion Trupti Murgunde and upcoming star G Ruthvika Shivani won their respective qualifiers in contrasting style to enter the main draw of the women’s singles.
Murgunde, who reached the quarters in the recently-concluded Welsh International, first overcame Shraddha Srivastava 21-16, 21-9 but was stretched in her second qualifiers as she edged past compatriot Dhanya Nair 21-15, 22-20. In comparison, the unseeded but aggressive Ruthvika upset her higher-seeded Thai rival Rawinda Prajongjai 21-15, 21-18 in the first qualifier and the second match proved to be a walk in the park for the Andhra Pradesh-based shuttler. Ruthvika trounced Saili Rane 21-10, 21-10, to book her place in the main round.
Earlier, playing against her Thai opponent who was seeded third in the qualifying round, Ruthvika was in belligerent form as she did not drop her speed at any stage in the clash and overpowered Rawinda in straight games in just 30 minutes.
In other matches in the women’s singles qualification rounds, India’s Rituparna Das came trumps against Arathi Sara Sunil 21-14, 21-17 while Thailand’s Chochuwong Pornpawee piped Korea’s Hyo Min Kim 21-8, 22-20.
In the men’s singles qualification rounds, India’s Prakash Jolly beat compatriot Manish Gupta 21-9, 21-16; Aditya Joshi beat Harsheel Dani 21-19, 21-13; Neeraj Vashist got past Gaurav Venkat 21-11, 21-16; Arsalan Naqvi beat Sachin Rawat 21-10, 21-17; Vikas Harsha edged past S Sanjeeth 21-14, 22-20; and Abhinav Manota triumphed over Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-14, 21-14. Both Srujan Nandaluri and NSV Vijetha clinched their respective matches against Bangladeshi opponents. Nandaluri beat Md Anamul Haque 21-8, 21-11 while Vijetha scored an easy win over Md Rais Uddin 21-7, 21-12.
In the men’s doubles qualification matches, three Indian pairs lived up to the expectations of local fans while the fourth lost to their Thai rivals. B Venkatesh-Santosh Ravuri beat Abhishek Ahlawat-Bhaskar Chakraborty 21-19, 21-16; KK Manjush Mohan-PH Suraj overcame Bangladesh’s Saifuddin[-Md Rais Uddin 21-18, 21-11; and Surender Rathee-Neeraj Vashist beat Bangladeshi duo of Md Anamul Haque and Md Ahsun Habib 21-15, 24-22. However, the Indian pair of Anil Kumar Raju and Venkatesh Prasad went down 21-7, 21-9 to the dominating Thai pair of W Ampunsuwan and W Uttamang.
By Indian Sports News Network