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The Indian mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy got a free passage into the second round at the 2017 BWF World Championships at Glasgow on Sunday even before the tournament began as their opponents pulled out. The Indian pair was scheduled to open the proceedings on Court 1 on Monday against the Australian combine of Sawan Serasinghe and Setyana Mapasa, but the team withdrew with hours left for the competition to begin.
The exact reason for their withdrawal is not yet known.
The Australian pair had looked ominous at the New Zealand Open Grand Prix Gold earlier this month where they reached the final on the back of three victories over much-fancied Chinese pairs.
Ashwini and Sumeeth’s job now gets tougher as their first match at the World Championships will be against the formidable 13th seeds Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping of China. The latter have won the China Masters this season apart from reaching the semi-finals at the Badminton Asia Championships and the Australian Open Superseries.
Reddy and Ponnappa began 2017 on a high by reaching the final of the Syed Modi International in January and then made it to the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open Superseries. They are currently ranked 56th.
Change in schedule on Day 1
With the change in the schedule, the earliest first round match involving an Indian on Monday is either that of Srikanth Kidambi’s opener or that of the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and K Maneesha.
Both are second on court after a 1pm local start (5.30pm IST) on their respective courts
The complete revised schedule for Monday, August 21 is as follows:
Men’s singles
(8) Srikanth Kidambi vs Sergey Sirant - 6.10pm approx.
Sameer Verma vs Pablo Abian - 8.30pm approx
Women’s singles
Rituparna Das vs Airi Mikkela - 9.50pm approx.
Tanvi Lad vs Chloe Birch - 8.30pm approx
Men’s doubles
Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy vs Chung Eui Seok/Kim Dukyoung - 8.45pm approx
Women’s doubles
Sanjana Santosh/Arathi Sara Sunil vs Natalya Voytsekh/Yelyzaveta Zharka - 8.30pm
Mixed doubles
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/K Maneesha vs Tam Chun Hei/NG Tsz Yau - 6.10pm approx.
Prajakta Sawant/Yogendran Khrishnan vs Lu Ching Yao/Chiang Kai Hsin - 6.30pm
(All timings in Indian Standard Time)
