Indonesia Open: India's HS Prannoy enters quarterfinals
text_fieldsJakarta: India's HS Prannoy stormed into the quarterfinals of men's singles of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament beating Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus in straight games on Thursday. The Kerala-based shuttler pulled off the game 21-11 21-18 in the second-round match, which lasted 41 minutes, PTI reported.
Prannoy had dominated the first set with his and built an early lead of 11-3. He made clinical use of his cross-court jump smash, PTI reports. But he fumbled at the beginning of the second half of the first set, giving points to his opponent, but he came back strong and sealed the set.
Prannoy had the support of his opponent, who also kept committing errors. The Indian moved smoothly and mixed his shots as well as speed to reign the opponent in.
Though Ng Long, the Indian's opponent, displayed a better game in the second set, it didn't end up in his favour. Ng Long managed to stay on the rallies, but Prannoy was well anchored on his game.
The victory was Prannoy's fourth against the 27-year-old world number 12. In his next, he will face Rasmus Gemke of Denmark or Bruce Leverdez of France.
In the meantime, India's Sameer Verma bowed out of the tournament losing 10-21 13-21 to world number five Zii Jia of Malaysia in straight sets. In women's doubles, the pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also followed Sameer out of the tournament, losing 16-21 13-21 in straight sets against Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China.
Further, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost 19-21 15-21 to China's Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi in straight sets on men's doubles.