Krishna-Pruthvi Stun Chinese Fifth Seeds at Arctic Open; Prannoy, Srikanth Bow Out In First Round

Vantaa, Oct 8: India's Krishna Prasad Garaga and Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy produced one of the biggest wins of their careers, knocking out fifth seeds He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu of China in the opening round of the Arctic Open Super 500 here on Wednesday.

The Indian men's doubles pair, who won back-to-back titles at the Saint-Denis Reunion Open and VI Mexican International Challenge in May, fought back from a game down to prevail 10-21, 21-18, 22-20 in a tense contest.

After losing the opening game, Krishna and Pruthvi raised their intensity to level the match before edging a closely fought decider. They will next face England's Oliver Butler and Samuel Jones for a place in the quarterfinals.

The victory was a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing day for India in the men's singles draw, with HS Prannoy, Tharun Mannepalli and Rounak Chauhan all suffering first-round exits.

Prannoy, 34, endured another difficult outing as he was beaten 10-21, 9-21 by fourth seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark. The former world No. 1, who was part of India's Asian Games contingent, has struggled for consistency this season.

Chouhan came close to forcing a decider against China's Weng Hong Yang but eventually lost 20-22, 22-20, 17-21. Mannepalli, meanwhile, went down 16-21, 14-21 to Denmark's Magnus Johannesen.

India had mixed fortunes in the women's singles on Tuesday. Tanvi Sharma advanced to the second round with a 21-15, 21-17 win over Taiwan's Chiu Pin Chian, while Isharani Baruah was eliminated by top seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, losing 10-21, 15-21.

Besides HS Prannoy, another seasoned Indian shuttler, Kidambi Srikanth, also suffered a first-round exit against Canada's Brian Yang after a hard-fought three-set game. The World No. 34 Canadian shuttler was down in the first set 21-15. However, he came back from behind to win the next two games, 21-15, 21-13.