BWF Hong Kong Open | Rankireddy-Ponnappa advance in mixed doubles

BWF Hong Kong Open | Rankireddy-Ponnappa advance in mixed doubles

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India had a mixed day in the ongoing Hong Open as the likes of Swastiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced into the next round, while the pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pranav Jerry Chopra crashed out early on. Wednesday will see Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu taking the court.

After Saurabh Verma’s heroics early on in the day where he advanced to the next round, India had two doubles clashes remaining before the end of the day. And they failed to convert the first day of the campaign into a hundred per cent winning one.

Ponnappa and Rankireddy were up against Thailand’s Nipitphon Phuangphuapet and Savitree Amitrapai in the first round and before they could get a measure of their opponents, they were already down 16-21 by a game.  However, the experienced and vibrant pair came back strongly in the remaining two games winning them 21-19, 21-17 to seal the match.

Ponnappa and Rankireddy would very likely be facing the strong Japanese pair of Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino, which would by no means be a simple task.

However, while they negotiated well with the Thai duo, Chopra and Sikki Reddy couldn’t. The pair of Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai had a rather easy match against the Indian pair. Dechapol and Sapsiree won the first game pretty easily at 21-10, and although they saw some resistance in the second one, they sealed the match by winning it 21-18.

N Sikki Reddy, however, would be pairing up with Ponnappa for the women’s doubles match, where they would be taking on Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen.

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