Rohan-Kuhoo, Shivam-Poorvisha breaks the opening at New Zealand Open

Mixed doubles pairs Rohan Kapoor with Kuhoo Garg and Shivam Sharma with S Ram Poorvisha progressed into second round at the Barfoot and Thompson New Zealand Open 2018 with the prize money of USD 150,000.

Rohan and Kuhoo Garg pair outplayed Misha Zilberman and Ksenia Polikarpova of Israel with 11-21, 21-7, 21-10 in just 42 minutes.  

The Indian pair remained trailed throughout the first game. Misha and Ksenia grabbed the early lead of 4-0 before Rohan and Kuhoo saved their first two points to reduce the deficit with 2-4. The Israel pair continued the dominance, slowly increasing the gap and saved the first game.

After losing in the first game, Kuhoo and Rohan just sealed the second game by outclassing their opponents with the most consecutive of 10 points. And continued the same spirit, where they took on the breather with the high of 11 points advantage with 11-0 and surged on to win the match.

In another mixed doubles event, Shivam and Poorvisha defeated the locals Niccolo Tagle and Fransisca Angelica Rahardja in the straight games with 21-19, 21-11 of the 32-minute encounter on Tuesday.

While, Jakkampudi Meghana and S Ram Poorvisha will face Erena Calder Hawkins and Jasmin Chung Man Ng of New Zealand in their first round of Women’s Doubles on Wednesday.

While from Men’s Doubles, the emerging shuttlers Arjun MR and Ramchandra Shlok will face Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani of Indonesia.

Among the seeded players at the tournament, the Indian Men’s Doubles fifth seeded duo Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face the locals Jonathan Curtin and Dhanny Oud, while the eighth seeds Francis Alwin and Kidambi Nandagopal will lock horns with Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Frengky Wijaya Putra of Indonesia on Wednesday.

In the Singles session, the star player in the junior category of India, Lakshya Sen is likely to face the legend Lin Dan in the second round, if he surpasses June Wei Cheam of Malaysia on Wednesday.

Other players from India, who will begin their campaign at the tournament from Wednesday are fifth seed Sameer Verma, senior shuttler Ajay Jayaram, Karan Rajan Rajarajan, Sourabh Verma, third seeded B Sai Praneeth and Subhankar Dey from Men’s Singles.

While, Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka and Sai Uttejitha Rao are the only Women’s Singles shuttlers to represent India at the tournament.

The six days campaign will have its finals on May 6th Sunday.