Kiran George, Meiraba Maisnam, Mithun Manjunath enter pre-quarterfinals in Orleans Masters

Orleans (France), March 31

The Indian troika of Kiran George, Meiraba Luwang Maisnam and Mithun Manjunath progressed to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals after contrasting wins in the second round of the Orleans Masters Super 100 badminton tournament here.

While George stunned Netherland’s third seed Mark Caljouw 19-21 21-16 23-21, qualifier Meiraba got rid of eighth seed Toby Penty of England 21-16 21-16 and Manjunath prevailed over compatriot Siddharth Pratap Singh 21-14 21-10 in another second round match.

George, who had won the Odisha Super 100 event in January, will face Indonesian qualifier Christian Adinata, Meiraba meets Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak and Manjunath takes on second seeded Dane Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus next.

Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam eked out a 21-23 21-12 21-10 win over Danish pairing of Amalie Schulz and Christine Busch to set up a fight against French duo of Flavie Vallet and Emilie Vercelot.

Men’s doubles pair of PS Ravikrishna and Sankar Prasad Udayakumar also made it to the pre-quarterfinals with a 19-21 21-11 21-12 win over German pairing of Marvin Datko and Patrick Scheiel.

Among others, top seed B Sai Praneeth and women’s singles players Anupama Upadhyaya and Ira Sharma also entered the third round on Wednesday night.

Mixed doubles pairing of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto, seeded seventh, also crossed the opening round hurdle.