India Open 2019: Eight singles players, 10 teams advance to main draw

New Delhi [India], Mar 26 (ANI): Eight singles players and 10 teams from India secured berths in the main draw as the qualifying rounds got over at the India Open 2019 badminton tournament here on Tuesday.
Third seed Rahul Yadav Chittaboina and fourth seed Siddharath Thakur led the march in men’s singles along with Kartik Jindal while veteran Pranaav Jerry Chopra made it through to the main draw of men’s doubles in partnership with Shivam Sharma.
World number 257 Jindal hardly broke a sweat in dismissing the 365th Pavel Kotsarenko in the first round. He was then made to work hard by the spirited world number 814 Sarath Dunna, who had knocked out the 210th ranked Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky 21-9, 17-21, 21-16 in his opening round.
Dunna showed the same resolve against Jindal before going down 12-21, 23-21, 19-21 in a tight contest that lasted 53 minutes.
Following the marathon, the 20-year-old Jindal stressed on the importance of recovering well before his first round clash with seventh seed Khosit Phetpradab.
“I feel delighted qualifying for the main draw but need to recover from today’s play for tomorrow’s match against Khosit from Thailand.”
Chittaboina recorded a 21-14, 21-15 victory over Anant Shivam Jindal to qualify for the main draw. Thakur was equally impressive in his 21-6, 21-13 win over Gurpartap Singh Dhaliwal and was joined by Kartikey Gulshan Kumar.
In women’s singles, Ritika Thaker, Prashi Joshi, Riya Mookerjee, and Vaidehi Choudhari progressed.
Thaker will face eighth seed Mia Blichfeldt, Joshi and Choudhari have tough opposition in the form of third seed He Bingjiao and seventh seed Han Yue, respectively.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra, one-half of India’s number two mixed doubles team, had an easy outing in the qualifiers alongside Shivam Sharma. Chopra and Sharma needed just 19 minutes to prevail over Vikas Chauhan and Sandeep Choudhary 21-10, 21-5.
In women’s doubles, Megha Morchana Bora and Manali Sinha staved off a stiff resistance from Anamika Kashyap and Sanghamitra Saikia to register a 24-22, 21-13 win.
In mixed doubles, Aparna Balan and Mohamed Muanis went down to the experienced Hong Kong pair of Tang Chun Man and NG Tsz Yau.
The main draw action at this tournament will start on Wednesday. The 2017 champion PV Sindhu starts her campaign against compatriot Mugdha Agrey. The 2015 winner Kidambi Srikanth will meet the tricky Wong Wing Ki Vincent in the first round while fifth seed Sameer Verma has Rasmus Gemke of Denmark first up. (ANI)