Syed Modi International 2023: Ashwini Ponnappa-Rohan Kapoor, N Sikki-Sumeeth Reddy advance to second round

Fellow mixed doubles pair Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto exited from the opening round.

Indian mixed doubles pairs Sikki Reddy/Sumeet Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa/Rohan Kapoor advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Syed Modi International 2023 at home. But it was curtains for another duo Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto who went down in an hour-long match to bow out from the opening round on Tuesday.

Ponnappa and Kapoor, who joined forces recently, outplayed Malaysian pair Chan Peng Soon/Cheah Yee See in straight games (21-12, 21-18) to advance. The Indian pair will next face fifth seeds Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsutomo of Japan for a place in the quarters.

On the other hand, Tanisha/Dhruv who are ranked 59th in the world, went down to the 26th ranked Singaporean duo of Terry Hee and Jessica Tan 21-16, 18-21, 21-18 in a close contest. However, Tanisha Crasto will be in action in women’s doubles with Ashwini Ponnappa. They will take on the fellow Indians Samriddhi Singh/Sonali Singh in the opening round.

In the main draw of the mixed doubles, India were represented by six pairs. N Sikki/ Sumeeth Reddy advanced to the round of 16. Anagha Karandikar-Aman Farogh, Nitin Kumar-Navdha Manglam, and Shivam Sharma-SP Ram made it to the main draw through qualifiers.

In men’s singles, Chirag Sen, elder brother of Lakshya Sen, and Meiraba Luwang Maisnam secured their spots in the main draw of the men’s singles. Unfortunately, four other Indian badminton players didn’t make it through. Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth will play their first-round matches on Wednesday.

In the women’s singles, three out of four Indian players — Aadya Variyath, K Mopati, and Janani Ananthakumar — moved on to the main round, while Ira Sharma didn’t make it.

From the women’s doubles qualifiers, Shrishti Gupta-Saumya Singh, Gayathri Rani Jaiswal-Sania Sikkandar, Ishu Malik-Tanu Malik, and Radhika Sharma-Tanvi Sharma advanced.

In the men’s doubles, Chirag Sen-Dhruv Rawat, Ayush Makhija-Venkat Gaurav Prasad, and Pratik Ranade-Zhakuo Seyie made it to the main draw.

In the women’s singles, youngsters Unnati Hooda, Malvika Bansod, and Tasnim Mir will compete. In the women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallists, will be the top Indian pair.

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