BWF World Championships: HS Prannoy beat Lakshya Sen to reach quarters; Saina Nehwal bows out
The Indian Queen of badminton Saina Nehwal was defeated by Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who is the current world number 12, in three games, 17-21, 21-16, 13-21 in the BWF World Championships’ round of 16 on Thursday, which took place in Tokyo.
The day also saw two Indian superstar shuttlers in Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy go head-to-head in the men’s singles last 16, with the latter defeating the All England silver medallist 17-21, 21-16, 21-17.
Prannoy, the man from Kerala ranked World No. 18, will face China’s World No. 23, Zhao Jun Peng, in the quarterfinals on Friday. Sometime back, the Indian men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila continued their winning streak in Tokyo by reaching their maiden quarterfinals by recording victory from the jaws of defeat. India’s No.1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have also advanced.
The non-seeded Indian pair had to grind it out for close to an hour to emerge victorious in its round of 16 clash against the Singaporeans Ter Loh Kean Hean and Terry Hee 18-21, 21-15, 21-16.
Kapila and Arjun will now battle against the third-seed Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the last eight stages. The duo has had a good run in the tournament so far. They had won against eighth seeds and last edition’s bronze medalists Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in two games 21-17 21-16 in their second round match.
“We feel good. As with every match, we were prepared for this one as well. We used different tactics compared to our last match because these guys are fast on the legs so we had to be extra ready. We had many nervous situations in the game but luckily we were able to get over them,” Arjun told BWF TV after the win.
“We’re looking to go all the way through because we’ve had many close matches with good pairs. I feel this is our time when matches are falling on our side as well.”
Related Posts
- Aug 2, 2022
