Indian shuttlers have fine day in Russia

Ajay Jayaram

Five Indian shuttlers, including Ajay Jayaram, progressed to the men's singles second round of the USD 75,000 Russia Open BWF Tour Super 100 here yesterday. Jayaram, who finished runners-up at the White Nights International Challenge earlier this month, brushed aside Canada's Xiaodong Sheng 21-14 21-8 in the opening round match to set up a clash with compatriot Subhankar Dey, who got a bye in the first round.

Pratul Joshi dumped Canada's Jeffrey Lam 21-11 21-8 and will take on Israel's Misha Zilberman at the Sport Hall Olympic tomorrow. Among others, Mithun Manjunath, Siddharth Pratap Singh and Rahul Yadav Chittaboina also reached the second round. Mithun defeated Belgium's Elias Bracke 21-14 21-13, Siddharth beat Malaysia's Jia Wei Tan 21-17 21-16, while Rahul streamrolled Russia's Maksim Makalov 21-11 21-10.

While Rahul will face eighth seeded compatriot Sourabh Verma, Siddharth meets fellow Indian Bodhit Joshi. Parupalli Kashyap and RMV Gurusaidutt, who got byes in the first round, will face Japan's Ryotaro Maruo and Russia's Vladimir Malkov respectively. Chirag Sen, who was also handed a bye in the first round, will take on the top seeded Spaniard Pabo Abian.

Also in action tomorrow will be Vaidehi Choudhari, Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka, Vrushali Gummadi, Mugdha Agrey and Rituparna Das in the women's singles. The men's doubles team of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla will also begin its campaign tomorrow. The duo will take on local pair Vladimir Nikulov and Artem Serpionov.

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