Rising Indian badminton star Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli put up a stunning performance to upset the fourth-seeded Chiang Mei Hui of Chinese Taipei in the first round of women’s singles at the Yonex Open Chinese Taipei 2017 on Wednesday. The 19-year-old needed 41 minutes to edge out the World No. 28, 21-17, 20-22, 21-9 and book her berth in the second round of this Grand Prix Gold tournament.
The 79th ranked Kudaravalli will next face the World No. 67 Shuo Yun Sung of Chinese Taipei for a place in the quarter-finals.
The only other Indian to win on Day 2 of the Chinese Taipei GPG was the 16th seeded Siril Verma in men’s singles. The youngster overcame stiff resistance from the 383rd ranked Chia Hao Lee to eventually prevail 16-21, 21-17, 21-17 in 51 minutes.
For a quarter-final berth, the 17-year-old will next face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, who stopped the fourth seed Sourabh Verma in the opening round.
Apart from these two players, there has not been much to cheer about for the Indian shuttlers. Both the 14th seed Harsheel Dani and the 15th seed Abhishek Yelegar bowed out in the second round.
Dani was trounced 12-21, 6-21 by Korea’s Ha Young Woong in just 30 minutes. It was a far cry from the sublime performance he had put up in the first round.
15th seed Yelegar ran out of steam in the decider and slumped to a 17-21, 21-17, 6-21 loss to Korean shuttler Seung Hoon Woo in 52 minutes.
In women’s singles, rising star Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka gave a tough fight to Korea’s Na Yeong Kim only to go down, 7-21, 17-21 in 29 minutes.
The only Indian doubles pair in action – Nikhar Garg and Ankur Sangpang Rai in men’s doubles – surrendered meekly 5-21, 8-21 to the local duo of Ko-Chi Chang and Liao Kuan Hao.
India’s top players have not participated in this event after hectic back-to-back Superseries tournaments in Indonesia and Australia. The next batch of players was sent to represent the country of which the 35th ranked Sourabh Verma was the biggest hope. But he failed to capitalise on his chances and crashed to a 19-21, 20-22 loss to Lee Zii Jia in the first round.
