Jakarta, June 16 : Indian shuttler HS Prannoy, who was instrumental in India’s first-ever Thomas Cup win last month, moved into the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament on Thursday.
Prannoy, the lone Indian left in the fray, defeated Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong 21-11, 21-18 here at the Istoria Stadium.
The Indian settled early and kept his higher-ranked opponent on toes from the start and and pocketed the opening game 21-11, countering Angus’s speed efficiently with precise returns.
Angus began the second game with much more intent and used the space well before Prannoy turnee the momentum into his favour after being tied at 7-7. The Indian then wrapped up the match by taking the second game 21-18 in 41 minutes.
Prannoy will face the winner of the match between Frenchman Brice Leverdez and Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in the quarterfinals.
In the other matches, Sameer Verma lost to Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 21-10, 21-13 in 43 minutes.
India’s top women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also crashed out after losing to Tokyo Olympics silver medallists Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China 16-21, 13-21.
Men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, meanwhile, lost to China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi 19-21, 15-21 in their round-16 match.
Earlier, top players PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth suffered opening round exit from the Indonesia Open 2022.
