Syed Modi International 2023: Youngsters Priyanshu Rajawat, Unnati Hooda through to pre-quarters

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made a positive start.

India’s upcoming stars Priyanshu Rajawat and Unnati Hooda registered opening round wins in men’s and women’s singles respectively at Syed Modi International 2023. The former who was winless in over two months on the BWF World Tour, claimed his first win over Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Panarin (21-17, 21-19). Meanwhile, teenager Unnati Hooda got the better of compatriot and India’s number two Aakarshi Kashap in a tense encounter (15-21, 21-19, 21-18).

Although few Indians enjoyed good success several had to exit in the opening stages. Former world number one Kidambi Srikanth suffered a shock exit in the hands of Chia Hao Lee (21-23, 8-21) from Chinese Taipei. The athlete from Andhra Pradesh had a good chance to end the season on a high and gain maximum Paris Olympics qualification points but failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

On the other hand, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran who had won few challenger series recently got off to a fine start by beating Huang Yu Kai (21-8, 21-13). For a place in the quarterfinals, he is going to face-off against Orleans Masters winner Priyanshu Rajawat. His statemate Sankar Subramanian, who rose to career-best ranking earlier this year lost to Arnaud Merkle in straight games (12-21, 19-21).

Kiran George was the other notable Indian in the men’s singles category to register a win. Tokyo Olympian Sai Praneeth and Mithun Manjunath exited tamely.

In the women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand combined to beat countrymates Apoorva Gahlawat/Sakshi Gahlawat (21-9, 21-16) in over 30 minutes. The pair has been off-colour throughout this season and a win here should boost their performance. They are seeded fourth and have a good chance of reaching the final four.

Upcoming doubles pair Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponappa beat Samriddhi Singh/Sonali Singh in in straight games (21-8, 21-9). Earlier, Tanisha combined with Dhruv Kapila to register opening round win in mixed doubles.

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