Basel, March 18 India's Ayush Shetty and S Sankar Muthuswamy Subramanian secured their places in the main draw of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament with dominant performances in the qualifiers on Tuesday.
Shetty comfortably defeated England's Cholan Kayan 21-12, 21-15 in 42 minutes to progress to the main round. The 19-year-old will face Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in his opening match on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Muthuswamy fought through two rounds, first winning against China’s Yuehang Wang 21-13, 21-4 in just 23 minutes, then defeating compatriot Tharun Mannepalli 21-7, 21-10 in the final qualifying round. He will meet Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen in his first-round match.
The men's singles main draw will feature six Indian players, including four direct entries: Srikanth Kidambi and HS Prannoy, who will face each other in the first round, and Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George. George will play Denmark's Rasmus Gemke while Rajawat is set to compete against local player Tobias Kuenzi.
Earlier, India's top-ranked men's singles shuttler Lakshya Sen withdrew from the tournament. Other notable withdrawals from the men’s singles competition include Lee Zii Jia, Shi Yu Qi and Lee Cheuk Yiu. As a result of these absentees, India’s Kidambi Srikanth, who was originally scheduled to play in the qualifying rounds, was promoted to the main draw.
In the women’s singles, the withdrawals have also led to the cancellation of an all-India first-round clash between PV Sindhu and Malvika Bansod. Sindhu will now face Denmark’s Julie Jakobsen while Bansod will take on Canada’s Michelle Li in their respective opening matches. Sindhu and Bansod could potentially meet in the quarter-finals if both players advance to the final eight.
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