New Delhi:
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy got a free passage into the second round at the 2017 BWF World Championships at Glasgow on Monday.
The Indian doubles pair got the free passage into the second round even before the tournament took off as their opponent pulled out.
The Indian pair was supposed to play on Court 1 on Monday against the Australian combine of Sawan Serasinghe and Setyana Mapasa.
The Australian pair withdrew hours before the competition begun. The reasons for their withdrawal is not yet known.
The Indian pairs job will now get tougher as they would now be playing their first match against World Champions Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping of China. The Chinese pair have the China Masters titles apart from reaching the semi-finals at the Badminton Asia Championships and the Australian Open Superseries this season.
However, the India pair — Reddy and Ponnappa — which ranks 56th, is confident of bagging medals in the Glasgow as they are high after reaching the finals of Syed Modi International and succeeded in making to the quarter-finals in Singapore Open Superseries.
