It was a tough start for the Indian Women’s badminton double pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Tressa Jolly in the Swiss Open 2023 held in Basel. After their impressive run to the semi-finals at the All England Open in Birmingham last week, expectations were high for the pair. Unfortunately, they crashed out in the first round, losing to Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in straight sets. However, it wasn’t all bad news for the Indian team. Malvika Bansod secured her spot in the main draw after beating USA’s Lauren Lam in the women’s singles qualifiers, and Aakarshi Kashyap received a bye. It’s still early days in the Swiss Open, and one can never predict what’s going to happen. The Indian team still has some of the top players who can turn things around and come out on top in this prestigious tournament.
In a tough mixed doubles qualifier at the Badminton World Federation tournament, Indian players Ashwini Ponnappa and Sumeeth B Reddy fought hard but ultimately lost to their opponents from Chinese Taipei. However, it wasn’t all bad news for the Indian team as the doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil managed to secure their place in the main draw with a thrilling win over their American opponents. Despite Ponnappa‘s loss in the women’s doubles qualifiers alongside teammate Tanisha Crasto, the Indian team can take heart from the gutsy performances of Reddy and Sunil, who will surely be looking to make their mark in the main event.
Despite their best efforts, Meiraba Luwang Maisnam and Priyanshu Rajawat fell short in their bid to qualify for the men’s singles main draw. Meiraba had a promising start, defeating Spain’s Luis Enrique Penalver in straight sets. However, his second match against Netherland’s Joran Kweekel proved to be a nail-biter, with Meiraba ultimately losing in a grueling three-set match. Priyanshu, on the other hand, faced a tough first-round opponent in Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee and was unable to advance. Although they did not make it to the main draw, Meiraba and Priyanshu can still take pride in their performances and use this experience to fuel their growth as badminton players.
The badminton world continues to see some unexpected upsets as we delve into the results of the latest tournament. Unfortunately, for the men’s doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sumeeth B Reddy, the outing did not end as expected after losing 21-15, 22-20 to Malaysia’s Boon Xin Yuan-Wong Tien Ci. However, Kapoor found success in mixed doubles, partnering with N Sikki Reddy, to defeat the German duo of Patrick Scheiel and Franziska Volkmann 21-17, 15-21, 21-18 to secure their spot in the main draw. But the road didn’t get any easier as MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down to Japan’s Akira Koga and Taichi Saito in the first round of the main draw. It just proves that in the game of badminton, anything can happen.
