Council Bluffs. Junior World Championships silver-medallist Shankar Muthusamy registered two wins to enter the men’s singles main draw of the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament here. The 19-year-old Shankar from Chennai opened his campaign on Tuesday night with a 21-17 21-11 win over Brazil’s Davi Silva and then beat Canada’s BR Sankeerth 21-11 21-17.
World No. 80 Shankar, who is playing his first season on the senior circuit, will take on Ireland’s Nahat Nguyen in the first round of the main draw. Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, however, withdrew midway through his second round match against Japan’s Ku Takahashi. Kashyap was trailing 21-23 7-11 when he decided to withdraw.
He defeated England’s Rohan Midha 21-19 21-17 in the first round. Men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost 14-21 14-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Chieh and Su Li Wei in the first round of the main draw.
