Swiss open: Srikanth, Saina start with easy victories

Basel, March 23

Seventh seed Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal made winning starts in the singles competition while Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy battled past reigning All England Open champions Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana in the Swiss Open here today.

Srikanth defeated Denmark’s Mads Christophersen 21-16 21-17 in the men’s singles opening round. Parupalli Kashyap cruised to a 21-17 21-9 win over France’s Enogat Roy, while HS Prannoy defeated B Sai Praneeth 25-23 21-16.

Third seeds Shetty and Rankireddy beat the Indonesian pair 17-21 21-11 21-18 in the men’s doubles.

In the women’s singles, Saina outplayed Yaelle Hoyaux 21-8 21-13. Ashmita Chaliha beat France’s LéOnice Huet 19-21 21-10 21-11.

The mixed doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sumeeth Reddy lost its first round match and so did the women’s doubles combine of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.

The Chinese team had pulled out of the Super 300 tournament due to multiple Covid-19 cases and injuries to its players. — PTI

Sable’s record headlines strong showing in IGP 2

Thiruvananthapuram: Avinash Sable set a men’s 3000m steeplechase national record to headline a string of good performances in the Indian Grand Prix 2 athletics competition here today. Quartermiler Priya H Mohan and discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur shared top honours in the women’s events. The winning throw of 61.39m will give Kamalpreet the confidence going into a busy calender year, including the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.