JOIN USFormer national champion Trupti Murgunde and Prakash Jolly won their respective final qualifying round matches to enter the main draw of the singles competition in the Syed Modi International India Open Grand Prix Gold here on Tuesday.
Murgunde first overcame Shraddha Srivastava 21-16, 21-9 but was stretched in her final qualifying round match as she edged past compatriot Dhanya Nair 21-15, 22-20.
Jolly eased past Kiran Kumar B 21-7, 21-18 and then the Karnataka shuttler outplayed Manish Gupta 21-9, 21-16 to seal his place in the men’s singles competition.
Jolly will take on 12th seeded compatriot R M V Guru Sai Dutt in the first round on Wednesday.
Top seed former Olympic and World Champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia face hosts Pratul Joshi while women’s top seed Saina Nehwal will be up against unseeded Ksenia Polikarpova of Russia in the first round matches.
Upcoming star G Ruthvika Shivani Ruthvika upset her higher-seeded Thai rival Rawinda Prajongjai 21-15, 21-18 before trouncing compatriot Saili Rane 21-10, 21-10 to book her place in the main round.
Earlier, playing against her Thai opponent who was seeded third in the qualifying round, Ruthvika was in belligerent form as she did not drop her intensity at any stage and overpowered Rawinda in straight games in just 30 minutes.
In other matches of the women’s singles qualification rounds, Rituparna Das came trumps against Arathi Sara Sunil 21-14, 21-17 while Thailand’s Chochuwong Pornpawee piped Korea’s Hyo Min Kim 21-8, 22-20. In the men’s singles qualification, Aditya Joshi overcame a stiff challenge from Harsheel Dani 21-19, 21-13 and Neeraj Vashist got past Gaurav Venkat 21-11, 21-16.