Vantaa, Oct 8 (IANS): Krishna Prasad Garaga and Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy produced the standout result for India at the Arctic Open, knocking out fifth seeds He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu of China to reach the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals, while experienced singles campaigners HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth made early exits here on Thursday.
The unseeded Indian combination showed considerable resilience after dropping the opening game, recovering to beat the Chinese pair 10-21, 21-18, 22-20 in a 61-minute contest.
Garaga and Roy, who won the Saint-Denis Reunion Open and VI Mexican International Challenge in successive weeks in May, will next meet England’s Oliver Butler and Samuel Jones for a place in the quarter-finals.
The doubles upset came on a day when India’s singles campaign lost two of its most established names.
Srikanth, ranked 31st in the world, appeared on course for a strong start after taking the opening game against Canada’s Brian Yang. The former world No. 1, however, could not sustain the momentum and eventually lost 15-21, 21-15, 21-13.
The result extends a difficult season for Srikanth, whose best performance on the BWF World Tour remains his runner-up finish at the US Open Super 300 in June. He has now suffered eight first-round defeats on the circuit this year.
Prannoy’s challenge ended more abruptly against fourth seed Anders Antonsen. The 34-year-old Indian, who reached the Vietnam Open Super 100 semi-finals last month, was unable to impose himself against the Dane and went down 21-10, 21-9.
India’s hopes in the men’s singles draw will now rest on Tharun Mannepalli, who continued his run after coming through qualifying.
Mannepalli, who entered the main draw on Tuesday, defeated Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen 21-16, 21-14 to set up a second-round meeting with second seed Christo Popov of France.
Rounak Chouhan’s campaign, meanwhile, ended after a hard-fought battle against China’s Weng Hong Yang. Chouhan bounced back from losing the first game to level the contest, but Weng held his nerve in the decider to win 22-20, 20-22, 21-17.
In the women’s singles, India’s campaign will resume on Thursday with two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Tanvi Sharma entering the competition in the second round. Sixth seed Sindhu will face Japan’s Riko Gunji, while Tanvi has a daunting assignment against top seed and former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand.
