NEW DELHI: India's challenge in the doubles events of the 2017 India Open Super Series suffered a setback with the exit of Shruti Mundada/Anoushka Parikh and Pranaav Jerry Chopra/N Sikki Reddy from the women's doubles and mixed doubles events respectively here on Thursday.
It was a disappointing start for India on the third day of the $3,25,000 event as the pair of Mundada/Parikh exited after losing 5-21, 10-21 against Japanese duo of Naoko Fukuman-Kurumi Yonao.
It was curtains for the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra/N Sikki Reddy too, as they lost to Russian pair of Evgenij Dremin/Evgenia Dimova in a closely fought encounter. With national coach
Pullela Gopichand watching from the stands and taking notes, the Indian pair, ranked 13th, suffered a 18-21, 18-21 defeat against their lower-ranked opponents to exit the tournament.
Ashwini Ponappa/N Sikki Reddy is the only Indian doubles pair left in the fray who are scheduled to face the fourth-seeded Puttita Supajirakul/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Malaysia in the women's doubles later in the day. The top-seeded Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen entered the last-eight of mixed doubles without entering the court after getting a walkover.
Among the foreign players, the world no 2
Sung Ji Hyun
gave a stern reminder of her challenge in women singles event with a crushing 21-6, 21-8 win over Bulgarian world no 26 Linda Zetchri in just 23 minutes. World no 3 Akane Yamaguchi also sailed into the next round beating Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky 21-16, 21-13
But Rio Olympic bronze medallist Japanese Nozomi Okuhara had to dig deep to eke out a 21-12, 9-21, 21-18 win over compatriot Sayaka Sato to book a quarterfinal berth. She will meet Yamaguchi for a place in the women's singles semis on Friday.
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