Odisha Masters: Tharun, Kiran among Indians advancing after first-round byes

Cuttack, Dec 9 (PTI) A host of Indian shuttlers, including top seed Tharun Mannepalli and second seed Kiran George, advanced to the men’s singles second round after receiving byes at the USD 110,000 Odisha Masters Super 100 here on Tuesday.

Besides Tharun and Kiran, fourth seed Priyanshu Rajawat, sixth seed Manraj Singh, seventh seed S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, Varun Kapur, eighth seed Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar, Siddharth Gupta and Ginpaul Sonna were also handed first-round byes.

Among those who took the court, Kavin Thangam Kavin rallied past Aryamann Tandon 21-18, 19-21, 21-16, while Tushar Suveer got the better of Alap Mishra 21-19, 8-21, 21-14 at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.

Saneeth Dayanand registered a straight-game win over Dhruv Negi 21-11, 21-13, and Arya Bhivpathaki edged out Shashwat Dalal 21-9, 22-21 in a close contest.

In another match, Darshan Pujari beat USA’s Kevin Arokia Walter 21-9, 21-12.

The second-round match-ups will see fourth seed Rajawat take on Saneeth Dayanand, while Govind Krishna will face Kavin. Orijit Chaliha is slated to meet Suveer, and seventh seed Sankar Muthusamy will play Pujari. PTI ATK UNG