HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships in Tokyo.
In a thrilling victory, HS Prannoy defeated second-seeded Kento Momota in straight games. On the same day, defending Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships in Tokyo.
In a second-round match, unseeded Prannoy outperformed expectations to overcome two-time former world champion Momota 21-17 21-16. It was also Prannoy’s first victory over Momota in eight games. The Indian had only ever defeated his higher-ranked Japanese opponent once in their previous encounters.
Earlier in the day, Lakshya Sen defeated Spain’s Luis Penalver in straight games to advance to the pre-quarterfinals. Sen, a young Indian badminton star, defeated his second-round opponent 21-17 21-10 in 72 minutes.
On Thursday, Prannoy and Sen will square off in an all-Indian last 16 matches in BWF World Championships.
However, last year’s runner-up Kidambi Srikanth was eliminated after losing in consecutive games to world number 32 Zhao Jun Peng. Zhao, made quick work of Srikanth, beating him 18-21, 17-21 in 34 minutes.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, the eighth-seeded men’s doubles team, defeated Solis Jonathan and Anibal Marroquin of Guatemala 21-8, 21-10. They will now advance through to Round 16, where they will face Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede of Denmark.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand’s women’s doubles campaign ended with an 8-21 17-21 loss to Malaysia’s tenth seeds Pearly Tan and Muralitharan Thinaah.
Earlier, the Indian men’s doubles combination of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila advanced to the pre-quarterfinals. However, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy exited the prestigious competition in the second round.
In their second-round match, unseeded Arjun and Kapila defeated eighth seeds and previous year’s bronze medalists, Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, 21-17 21-16. They will then face Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean.
Ponnappa and Sikki, on the other hand, were defeated in 42 minutes by top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China.
The other women’s doubles team, Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh, also exited the competition, losing 15-21 7-21 against third seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of Korea. Fourth seeds Soyeong Kim and Heeyong Kong of South Korea defeated Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam 5-21 21-18 13-21.
