India’s badminton mixed doubles pair of Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath advanced to the second round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament on Wednesday.
In a stunning comeback, the Indian pair overcame world No 16 Ye Hong Wei-Nicole Gonzales Chan of Chinese Taipei in a thrilling three-set match 15-21, 21-16, 21-17.
Sathish-Aadya’s performance was the only silver lining of the day as all other Indians in fray lost.
They will now take on sixth seed Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand.
Another Indian pair, Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto, showed resilience against second seed Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia. But the Indian pair eventually went down fighting 11-21, 21-16, 14-21 in another three-set thriller.
Meanwhile, Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh and Rohan Kapoor-Gadde Ruthvika Shivani also lost their first round matches.
Ashith-Amrutha lost to Denmark’s Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch 15-21, 9-21 while Rohan-Shivani lost to Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara (Japan) 14-21, 9-21 in just 33 minutes.
In men’s singles, Kiran George lost to Singapore’s Yew Kean Loh 20-22, 9-21, ending India’s campaign. He was the only single’s player in action after Lakshay Sen and HS Prannoy lost their first round matches.
In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela will take on Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova-Yevheniia Kantemyr later in the day.