Arctic Open: Kidambi Srikanth, Kiran George move to pre-quarterfinals

Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Kiran George progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles event in the Arctic Open Super 500 badminton tournament on Wednesday.

Coming on the back of a silver medal in the Asian Games team event, Srikanth moved to the second round after his German opponent Max Weisskirchen retired while lagging 6-11 first game.

Youngster Kiran George stunned higher-ranked Toma Junior Popov 24-22, 15-21, 21-15 in a 73-minute clash.

Srikanth will face Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama next, while Kiran will clash with the fourth-seeded Lu Guang Zu of China.

Mithun Manjunath, however, suffered a 19-21, 14-21 defeat against China's Weng Hong Yang to bow out. He had lost to the Chinese in the men's team championships final at the Hangzhou Asian Games as well.

In women's doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponappa stunned higher-ranked Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto in straight games 22-20, 21-19 to move to the next round.

Among others, the mixed pair of Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto and the women's combination of Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda also exited after losing their respective opening-round matches.

Earlier on Tuesday, PV Sindhu and Aakarshi Kashyap also made it to the pre-quarterfinals defeating Nozomi Okuhara and Lianne Tan respectively.