Russian Open'18 Day 2 Update: Saurabh, Rituparna continue grinding

The inaugural round for the Indian singles shuttlers at the Russian Open was worth the praise. Most of the Indian participants have steamrolled their opponents to reach the Pre-quarter finals of the BWF Tour Series Super 100 event. The Russian Open initiated on Wednesday and shuttlers around the globe joined the battle for the reward of USD 75,000. The Russian Open 2018 Pre-quarters updates and recent results are here. Read on to know about the Indian Players at the Russian Open 2018.

Men’s Singles

The eight seed player, Sourabh, the ace shuttler who is also up for the Asian Games is proving the selection committee that they have made a sensible decision. He has been performing well in the election tournaments also. In the second round, World No 78 was drawn against compatriot Rahul Yadav Chittaboina in the Men’s singles. Sourabh foiled him by a 23-21, 21-11. In the same category, Mithun Manjunath knocked out Thailand’s Pannawit Thongnuam by 21-14, 21-13 to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the Russian Open.

Senior players such as Paruapalli Kashyap, Gurusaidutt and Ajay Jayaram couldn’t get through the second round.

Siddarth Pratap Singh beat compatriot Pratul Joshi 21-17, 21-16 to reach the third round, whereas the fifth seed Subhankar Dey ended Ajay Jayaram’s campaign in an exciting match. The competition was thrilling and unpredictable, although Subhankar managed to win with a 15-21, 21-14, 21-15.

Parupalli Kashyap lost the game to Ryotaro Maruo of Japan 12-21, 11-21, in the meantime, the local player, Vladimir Malkov steamrolled Gurusaidutt 21-14, 21-8 in another match of the Men’s singles category. Pratul Joshi was vanquished by Israel’s isha Zilberman in the tough battle 12-21, 21-18, 13-21. On the other hand, top seed Pablo of Spain, in a hustle against Chirag Sen, defeated the Indian shuttler 14-21, 21-16, 16-21.

Women’s Singles

In Women’s Singles, the Russian rival Victoria Slobodyanyuk was thwarted by former national champion Rituparna Das with a 21-11, 21-18.

The Asian Games squad player, Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka lost the opening match to Korea’s Byeol Lim Lee 21-14, 15-21, 18-21 in an arduous game. Seeded Kristin Kuuba of Estonia ended the voyage of Vaidehi Choudhari as the former knocked out her with a 21-13, 21-15 and entered in the second round.

Men’s Doubles

The unified pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla in the Men’s Doubles category also climbed up to the third round. The Indian duo, who is famous for their performance in the Thomas Cup, whipped out the Russian pair of Vladimir and Artem Serpionov in the inaugural with the score line of 21-15, 21-15.

The duo later met with Canada’s Jeffrey Lam and Hin Shun Wong of England only to throw them out of the tournament 21-12, 21-13. With the score, it is crystal clear, how badly the rival pair was upset.

Another Mixed Doubles pair of Kona Tarun and Saurabh Sharma, who got a bye, will go up against the Malaysia duo of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in the second round, to set foot in the pre-quarterfinals.