Defending champion HS Prannoy made a bright start to his campaign at the $120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold by notching up a comfortable straight-game victory in the first round at Basel on Tuesday. The World No. 22 needed just 36 minutes to prevail over the 245th ranked German David Peng, 21-15, 21-18.
The fifth seed will take on Scotsman Kieran Merrilees next, a player placed 36 spots below him in the current BWF Rankings.
Also Read: Swiss Open Badminton: HS Prannoy faces tough road to title defence
As a 13th seeded underdog, Prannoy triumphed last year at this event after scalping three seeds. He needs to be at his immaculate best to have any chance of a repeat of that result as he has to face the second seed and 2017 All England Championships runner-up, Shi Yuqi in the quarter-finals.
13th seed, Sameer Verma, too, joined Prannoy in the second round with a confidence-boosting performance. Verma thrashed the 141st ranked Hungarian Gergely Krausz, 21-10, 21-16 in 36 minutes.
The Indian has been in impeccable form for the last few months and made it to his maiden Superseries final at the Hong Kong Open in November. He carried that momentum into the new season and won the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold for his first title of the season.
Since then, even though he lost a couple of matches, the 22-year-old Verma showed enough flashes of brilliance in his opener at the Swiss Open that will stand him in good stead as the tournament progresses.
Subhankar Dey wins
Subhankar Dey was the third Indian winner of the night. The World No. 106 has been doing very well in international level events and even captured two titles this year, the latest of which came at the Portuguese International on Sunday.
Dey had to work hard and hold his nerves for a hard-fought 17-21, 21-17, 21-15 win over Germany’s Alexander Roovers in a match that lasted 1 hour 2 minutes. His next opponent is the 354th ranked Iztok Utrosa of Slovenia.
Sameer Verma’s elder brother, Sourabh, however, did not have the same good fortune. The reigning national champion squandered a one-game lead to go down to Danish shuttler Rasmus Gemke, 21-14, 21-23, 12-21 in a 1-hour 5-minute battle.
Lakhanee Sarang too could not cross the first round hurdle and lost 11-21, 5-21 to Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama.
