CALGARY (CANADA), July 2: Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the semifinals of the USD 55,000 Canada Open Grand Prix badminton tournament after notching up contrasting victories in the men�s singles competition here.
Top seeded Jayaram defeated fellow Indian Harsheel Dani 21-18, 19-21, 21-8 in a hard-fought that lasted 47 minutes.
The two-time Dutch Open winner, Jayaram will face Korea�s Lee Hyun Il, seeded third, in the semifinals.
Fourth seed Praneeth too made it to the final four after brushing aside eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia 21-14, 21-16 in just 33 minutes to set up a clash against seventh seeded Frenchman Brice Leverdez, who had ended the campaign of second seed HS Prannoy of India.
Prannoy played out of skin before going down fighting 22-20, 21-23, 18-21 to Leverdez.
In women�s singles, it was curtains for Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and Tanvi Lad.
While Ruthvika suffered a 16-21, 12-21 loss to fourth seed Linda Zetchiri of Bulgaria, Tanvi fought hard before going down 16-21, 21-15, 10-21 to third seed Iris Wang of USA.
Among other Indians in fray, top seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who have qualified for Rio Olympics, were given a walkover by Canada�s Ted (Chin Tai) Chen and Chinese Taipei�s Liao Chao Hsiang in the men�s doubles event.
The Indian duo will play Indonesia�s Andrei Adistia and Canada�s Dong Adam (Xingyu).
Rio-bound women�s doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, seeded top, gave a walkover to Leanne Choo of Australia and Rachel Honderich of Canada.
In another women�s doubles match, Jakkampudi Meghana and S Poorvisha Ram suffered a narrow 21-18, 16-21, 20-22 loss to Hung Yi-Ting and Su Hsiang Ling of Chinese Taipei.
Manu and Ashwini also gave a walkover to fourth seed Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom of Sweden in the mixed doubles competition. � PTI
