Germany, Feb 29:
Indian badminton players Aakarshi Kashyap and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran entered the women’s and men’s singles second round, respectively at the German Open 2024 in Mulheim on Wednesday.
Kashyap, 43rd in the badminton rankings, defeated world No. 79 Polina Buhrova of Ukraine 23-21, 17-21, 11-21 to enter the round of 16 in women’s singles.
Kashyap won the Uganda International Challenge last week and produced a spirited fightback to down her opponent in one hour and three minutes. The Indian badminton player will face world No. 22 Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in the round of 16.
In the men’s singles, world No. 50 Karunakaran upset the 45th-ranked Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-18, 19-21, 21-19 in one hour and 22 minutes. He will take on world No. 42 Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in the round of 16.
World No. 69 Sankar Subramanian, who won his two matches in the qualifiers to make the main draw, made a first-round exit, losing to 22nd-ranked Brian Yang of Canada 21-15, 18-21, 13-21.
In the mixed doubles, Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh went down to Malaysian pair Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai 21-12, 21-11.
In the women’s doubles, India’s Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda, world No. 51, lost to the 439th-ranked German pair of Amelie Lehmann and Cara Siebrecht 21-17, 10-21, 21-14.
Tanya Hemanth, in women’s singles, and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath, in mixed doubles, will be in action later in the day.
The German Open 2024, a BWF Super 300 meet, is the sixth tournament on the 2024 badminton calendar and offers qualifying ranking points for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 last year and will end in April this year.
