Jakarta, (Indonesia): Continuing his rich vein of form, ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy moved into the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open 2022 badminton tournament here Thursday. In the pre-quarterfinals HS Prannoy defeated Angus NG Ka Long of Hong Kong. India’s only remaining challenge at the BWF Super 1000 event, Prannoy, ranked 23rd in the world defeated World No 12 Angus 21-11, 21-18 in the men’s singles match at the Istoria Stadium.
The 29-year old Prannoy settled down early and kept his higher-ranked opponent on toes from the start. He countered Long’s speed efficiently with precise returns at the back of the court.
The shuttler from Hong Kong began the second game with much more intent and used the space well before Prannoy took back the momentum after being tied at 7-7. The Indian then sealed the second game and match in 41 minutes.
Also read: We were determined to make it happen: HS Prannoy on his journey in Thomas Cup
Prannoy was instrumental in India’s first-ever Thomas Cup win last month. He will now face the winner of the match between World No 41 Brice Leverdez of France and Denmark’s World No 13 Rasmus Gemke in the quarterfinals Friday.
Earlier in the day, World No 30 Sameer Verma lost to fifth-ranked Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 10-21, 13-21 in 43 minutes. Verma was no match for the Malaysian and surrendered the match meekly.
On the other hand, India’s top women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also crashed out after losing to Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China 16-21, 13-21. The men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also lost to China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi 19-21, 15-21 in their round of 16 match.
Other Indian top players PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth suffered first-round defeats and made an early exit from the Indonesia Open 2022.