HS Prannoy, Aakarshi Kashyap, Anupama Upadhyaya off to winning start at Syed Modi badminton tournament

HS Prannoy, Aakarshi Kashyap and Anupama Upadhyaya got off to a winning start at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Fifth seed HS Prannoy sailed into the second round of the HSBC BWF World Tour 300 tournament with a convincing victory in the first round.

World No. 24 Prannoy thumped Danylo Bosniuk of Ukraine 21-14, 21-18 in just 36 minutes to launch his campaign on a triumphant note. Prannoy dominated the Ukrainian, ranked 130 in the world, from the word go. This was their first ever meeting on the international circuit.

Prannoy faces young Priyanshu Rajawat in the second round

Prannoy, a former top-10 player, will clash with compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat on Wednesday for a spot in the last eight. It will be Prannoy’s first outing against world No. 127 Priyanashu at the world stage.

Former junior Indian shuttler Priyanshu got a first-round walkover from his practice partner Rahul Yadav Chittaboina.

Prannoy, who is on a comeback trail, did well at the last week’s India Open in New Delhi by reaching the men’s singles quarterfinals. The former national champion was edged out by eventual champion Lakshya Sen in three tough games.

Verma brothers knocked out in first round

The opening day of the competition turned out to be a disappointing one for the Verma brothers. Both Sourabh and Sameer, who were seeded, bowed out in the first round itself.

Fourth seed Sameer Verma retired hurt against Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen early in the first game. Sameer was trailing 2-7 in the first game when he decided to concede the match due to a persistent calf muscle injury which he had sustained in October last year.

Sameer’s elder brother Sourabh was upset by a lower-ranked opponent. Seventh seed Sourabh Verma went down fighting against Ade Resky Dwicahyo of Azerbaijan 21-15, 19-21, 18-21 in a marathon encounter that lasted for an hour and 7 minutes.

World No. 37 Sourabh, who married recently, was surprised by world No. 76 despite winning the first game quite easily.

Subhankar Dey conceded his match against compatriot Kartikey Gulshan Kumar because of an injury when he was trailing 2-9 in the opening game.

Aakarshi Kashyap beat Mugdha Agrey 21-13, 21-14 in the women's singles first round on Tuesday (Picture: BAI)

Aakarshi Kashyap beats Mugdha Agrey for third time in a row

Aakarshi Kashyap has continued her brilliant run in Lucknow. The 20-year-old Aakarshi, who reached the India Open semifinals last week, downed Mugdha Agrey 21-13, 21-14 in 39 minutes.

It was the third successive win for world No. 59 Aakarshi over Mugdha in the international circuit since 2018. An out of form Mugdha, who has now slipped to 96 in the world rankings, did well in patches but failed to stop Aakarshi.

Anupama Upadhyaya shocked Rituparna Das 21-7, 21-10 in only 21 minutes. Fast-rising teenager Anupama did no harm to her growing reputation with a quick-fire win.

Malvika Bansod got a walkover from Ashmita Chaliha. The 20-year-old southpaw will meet the winner of Sai Uttejitha Rao and Anjana Kumari in the next round.

In a thrilling first-round outing, Ira Sharma squandered a solid start and went down against Lauren Lam of the USA in three games.

Top seed PV Sindhu will launch her campaign against Bengaluru teenager Tanya Hemanth on Wednesday.

Indian Results (Round 1)

Men’s singles

5-HS Prannoy bt Danylo Bosniuk (Ukraine) 21-14, 21-18 (36 minutes)

Kartikey Gulshan Kumar bt Subhankar Dey 9-2 (Retired) (4 minutes)

Priyanshu Rajawat gets a walkover from C Rahul Yadav

7-Sourabh Verma lost to Ade Resky Dwicahyo (Azerbaijan) 21-15, 19-21, 18-21 (67 minutes)

Kiran George lost to Sergey Sirant (Russia) 16-21, 18-21 (38 minutes)

4-Sameer Verma lost to Nhat Nguyen (Ireland) 2-7 (Retired) (4 minutes)

Women’s singles

Aakarshi Kashyap bt Mugdha Agrey 21-13, 21-14 (39 minutes)

Anupama Upadhyaya bt Rituparna Das 21-7, 21-10 (21 minutes)

Malvika Bansod gets a walkover from Ashmita Chaliha

Ira Sharma lost to Lauren Lam (USA) 21-15, 16-21, 16-21 (50 minutes)

Men’s doubles

4-MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila bt Torjus Flaatten-Vegard Rikheim (Norway) 23-21, 21-9 (36 minutes)

6-Krishna Prasad G-Vishnuvardhan Goud P bt Vasantha Kumar HR-Ashith Surya 21-15, 21-14 (31 minutes)

Ishaan Bhatnagar-Sai Pratheek K bt Junaidi Arif-Muhammad Haikal (Malaysia) 21-18, 19-21, 21-17 (63 minutes)

Akshay Kadam-Raju Mohamed Rehan bt Bhaskar Chakraborty-Kapil Chaudhary 21-15, 21-17 (35 minutes)

Tushar Sharma-Vinay Kumar Singh lost to 7-Fabien Delrue-William Villeger (France) 8-21, 13-21 (28 minutes)

Women’s doubles

Riya Mookerjee-Shivani Santosh Singh gets a walkover from Sanyogita Ghorpade-Shruti Mishra

Srivedya Gurazada-Ishika Jaiswal bt Mehreen Riza-Arathi Sara Sunil 22-20, 21-15 (31 minutes)

Mixed doubles

Dhruv Rawat-Shikha Gautam bt Raju Mohamed Rehan-Jamaludeen Anees Kowsar 21-13, 21-12 (25 minutes)

Balkeshari Yadav-Swetaparna Panda bt Kirtesh Dhindhwal-Daksha Gautam 21-6, 21-9 (18 minutes).