Swiss Open: Praneeth, Jayaram lose in quarters

Basel, March 5

Olympics hopeful B Sai Praneeth suffered a straight game loss to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the quarterfinals as Indian shuttlers had a dismal outing at the Swiss Open here on Friday.

Praneeth, who finished runner-up in the last edition, lost 14-21 17-21 to Jia in 45 minutes to bow out of the tournament.

Ajay Jayaram’s campaign ended after a demoralising 9-21 6-21 loss to eighth seeded Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn in another last-eight men’s singles match.

Earlier, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa fought hard before going down 17-21 21-16 8-21 to fifth seeds Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia in quarterfinals of the mixed doubles competition. PTI