HS PRANNOY BEATS COUNTRYMATE LAKSHYA SEN TO CRUISE INTO QUARTERFINALS

Indian shuttler HS Prannoy picked up a scintillating win over compatriot Lakshya Sen to stay on course for a maiden medal at the BWF World Championships here on Thursday.

Prannoy displayed great tenacity and grit to overcome a stiff challenge to register a hard-fought 17-21, 21-16, 21-17 victory over Lakshya and move into the men’s singles quarterfinals of the blue riband tournament.

Coming into the match with a 2-1 advantage over Lakshya, Prannoy started off with a couple of unforced errors to go 0-3 down but he soon composed himself and levelled the score 4-4 with a smash. There was hardly anything to separate these two and with Lakshya leading 9-8, he collected two quick points to go into the break with a slender three-point lead. After the breather, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion precise shot selection saw him race to 16-10, opening up a huge lead. But Prannoy gradually fought his way back and reduced the gap but could not do much as the World No.10 eventually pocketed the opening game.

However, after the change of ends, it was Prannoy who upped the ante and zoomed to a 7-4 lead. Sensing trouble, Lakshya countered and his aggression saw him turn the tables and take a 11-10 lead. Prannoy, however, stayed unfazed and brought all his experience into play and slowly paced ahead, winning the second game to take the match into a decider.

With a nail-biting finish on the court, Lakshya somewhat failed to regain his rhythm and committed errors at crucial junctures to allow his countrymate to seize the advantage. Prannoy went into the break leading 11-8 and held the lead throughout the remaining game to seal the affair and complete the turnaround.

Prannoy will now take on China’s Zhao Jung Peng in the quarterfinals.

In the men’s double encounter, the star Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty maintained their winning run and beat Jeppe Bay and Lasse Mølhede of Denmark 21-12, 21-10 to make it to the last eight, while the pair of M.R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila outclassed Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in a hard-fought contest to cruise into the quarterfinals.

Satwik and Chirag will take the second-seeded local favourites Tajuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in their next encounter. The Arjun and Dhruv will be up against the dangerous third-seeded pair of Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, it was the end of the road for Nehwal as she went down to Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals.