In a brilliant display of mettle, Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy advances to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 750 badminton tournament in Bali on Thursday.
The highlight of the day however was HS Prannoy's stunning 14-21 21-19 21-16 upset victory over Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Victor Axelsen in a tense one hour 11 minutes battle in the the men's singles second round. Down and out in the first game, Prannoy made a sensational recovery to first level the match and then etch out a memorable win against the world no 2. This was Prannoy's first victory in six attempts against Axelsen. With the win, the world no 32, Indian shuttler becomes the first player to beat the Dane in full a match since March.
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In the women's singles, reigning world champion Sindhu took 47 minutes to record a 17-21 21-7 21-12 win over Spain's Clara Azurmendi. Playing against the world no 47 Azurmendi for the first time, Sindhu went down in the first game before putting up a dominant performance in the next two games to register a brilliant victory.
On the other hand, former world no 1 Srikanth, dispatched Indonesia's sixth seed Jonatan Christie 13-21 21-18 21-15 in one hour two minutes in the men's singles second round fixture. The unseeded Srikanth, who had claimed the Indonesia Open Super Series premier in 2017 at Jakarta, will take on Prannoy in the quarterfinals.
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However, it was curtain call for young Lakshya Sen the men's singles event and the mixed doubles pairing of Dhruv Kapila and N Sikki Reddy. The 20-year-old shuttler, who had reached the semi-finals at Hylo Open Super 500 and final of Dutch Open recently, went down 13-21 19-21 to the top seed and two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan in a 46-minute clash.
Kapila and Sikki, on the other hand, lost a hard fought 15-21 23-21 18-21 battle to Thai duo of Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran in the second round mixed doubles match. Women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy also crashed out of the event in the second round third seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 18-21 12-21.
With PTI Inputs
