Sarawak (Malaysia), Jan 17:
Young Indian shuttlers Harsheel Dani, Pratul Joshi and Hemanth M Gowda advanced to the second round of the season-opening Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here today.
The 20-year-old Harsheel, who reached the quarterfinals at Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold last year in Lucknow, saw off Malaysia’s Zii Jia Lee 21-19 21-17 in little over half an hour.
Pratul, who clinched the Bahrain International title last year, saw off Singapore’s Zin Rei Ryan Ng 15-21 21-16 24-22 in a hard-fought battle in the men’s singles competition.
Unheralded Hemanth M Gowda also reached the second round, beating Indonesia’s Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky 21-14 21-15 in another match.
Among others, Siril Verma suffered a narrow 10-21 21-18 17-21 loss to Thailand’s Pannawit Thongnuam, while Abhishek Yelegar lost 13-21 14-21 to 13th seed Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia and Rahul Yadav Chittaboina suffered a 16-21 11-21 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Hsueh Hsuan Yi. (PTI)
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