Korea Open: Jayaram, Praneeth enter second round; Srikanth, Kashyap bow out

Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the men's singles second round at the Korea Open in what turned out to be a mixed day for India at the US $600,000 Super Series badminton tournament in Seoul.

While Jayaram and Praneeth crossed the opening hurdle, K Srikanth, P Kashyap, H S Prannoy and Tanvi Lad fought equally hard in gruelling three-set games before bowing out of the tournament.

Jayaram, who turned 29 on Wednesday, celebrated his birthday with a 23-21 21-18 win over Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin in a 45-minute battle. The Mumbai shuttler, who had lost to Jin at the Malaysia Masters last year, will face China's Huang Yuxiang next.

Praneeth too edged out Chinese Taipei's Hsu Jen-hao 21-13 12-21 21-15 in another match that lasted over an hour. He will take on sixth seeded Korean Son Wan Ho, in the second round.

However, Rio Olympics quarterfinalist Srikanth, seeded 8th, suffered a narrow 10-21 24-22 17-21 defeat against Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong, while Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, who played three-game matches yesterday, dished out another superb fight before losing 22-20 10-21 13-21 to fourth seeded Chinese Tian Houwei, who had finished as runners-up at the  All England Championship. Swiss Open champion Prannoy also tried his best but his efforts didn't fructify as he lost 23-21 17-21 15-21 to Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei in the opening round.

The only competitor at women's singles, Tanvi Lad also showed the stomach to fight before going down 18-21 21-13 18-21 to Denmark's Anna Thea Madsen.