German Open: Sathish Karunakaran, Aakarshi Kashyap move to round of 16

Indian shuttlers Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aakarshi Kashyap moved to the second round of the German Open Super 300 tournament while S Sankar Muthuswamy crashed out on Wednesday.

Currently ranked world number 50, Sathish defeated world number 45 Misha Zilberman in a thrilling game to move to the pre-quarterfinal.

Sathish, who won his maiden Super 100 title at the Odisha Open last year, won 21-18, 19-21, 21-19 to set a pre-quarterfinal clash with Nhat Nguyen of Ireland.

While Sathish won the men's singles encounter, he lost the mixed doubles tie with his partner Aadya Variyath against the third-seeded pair of Tang Chun Man/Tsu Ying Suet of Hong Kong.

In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap defeated Polina Buhrove of Ukraine to make her way to the round of 16.

Aakarshi, who is coming after winning the Uganda International challenge last Sunday, defeated Polina in an hour-long battle 21-23, 21-17, 21-11 to register a comeback win.

The world no. 43 Indian will face Denmark's sixth seed Mia Blichfeldt next.

S Sankar Muthuswamy almost pulled off an upset but went down fighting against Canada's Brian Yang in men's singles. Despite winning the first game 21-15, Sankar lost the last two games against the fifth-seeded Canadian shuttler.

Among other Indian results, The Panda sisters -- Rutaparna and Swetaparna -- went down 17-21 21-10 14-21 to Germany's Amelie Lehmann and Cara Siebrecht in women's doubles to bow out of the competition.

Another women's doubles pair of Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh lost 12-21 11-21 to fourth-seeded Malaysian duo Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie.

In women's singles, Tanya Hemanth lost 15-21, 13-21 to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in straight games,

India's Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded fourth, beat Chinese Taipei's Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun 18-21 21-11 21-13 in their opening match on Tuesday.

They will face the Czech Republic's Sona Horinkova and Katerina Zuzakova next.