Council Bluffs (US), Jul 12 (PTI) World junior silver medallist Sankar Muthusamy notched up twin wins to enter the main draw of the men’s singles competition at US Open Super 300 badminton tournament here.
The 19-year-old from Chennai, who won the Luxembourg Open International Series title in May, opened his campaign with 21-17 21-11 win over Brazil’s Davi Silva and then recorded a 21-11 21-17 victory over Canada’s B R Sankeerth on Tuesday night.
World number 80 Sankar, who is playing his rookie season in the senior circuit, will face a tricky opponent in Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in the main draw.
Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, however, retired midway into his second match after trailing 21-23 7-11 against Koo Takahashi of Japan. He had won his first match against England’s Rohan Midha 21-19 21-17.
Men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, however, couldn’t cross the opening round of main draw, losing 14-21 14-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Chieh and Su Li Wei.
On Wednesday night, newly-crowned Canada Open winner Lakshya Sen, Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will begin their campaign.
The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.
One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.
Source: PTI News
