India had a mixed day at the New Zealand Open badminton tournament with the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and men’s doubles duo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy reaching the quarterfinals of the $120,000 Grand Prix Gold event here today.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games champions, Jwala and Ashwini, eked out a 10-21 23-21 21-15 win over Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara. The fourth seeded Indian pair will meet local duo of Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Somerville in next the round.
Manu and Sumeeth, who clinched the Mexico Open last December, prevailed over Philippines’ Ronel Estanislao and Paul Jefferson Vivas 21-15 21-16. The sixth seeded Indians will next face second seeds Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol of Korea.
In mixed doubles match, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy disposed off Japan’s Takuto Inoue and Naru Shinoya 21-16 21-13 to reach the quarterfinals.
They will square off with second seeds Shin Baek Cheol and Chae Yoo Jung of Korea, who had beaten Indian pair of Manu and Ashwini 21-17 21-19 in another pre-quarterfinals match.
In men’s doubles, Pranaav and Akshay Dewalkar went down 14-21 17-21 to seventh seeds Chen Hung Ling and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei.
