Tokyo: India's HS Prannoy knocked out compatriot Lakshya Sen, a Commonwealth Games champion, to sail into the quarterfinal of the BWF World Championships here on Thursday. While Saina Nehwal bowed out after losing to Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungpham in the round-16.
Prannoy registered 17-21, 21-16, 21-17 victory over Sen, who is a 2021 edition's bronze medallist.
The 30-year-old Indian, who is the only Indian left in the men's singles, will be up against Zhao Jun Peng of China in the quarterfinal, incidentally the repeat of the Indonesia Open semifinal.
Indonesia Open 2022 semifinal was Prannoy and Zhao's first and only face-off, which the Chinese won in straight games.
Prannoy has staged a major upset in the round-32 clash by knocking out former two-time world champion Kento Momota in-front of his home audience. This was the Indian world No.18 shuttler's first win over the Japanese in eight meetings.
Saina's 17-21, 21-16, 13-21 loss against Busanan, however, ended medal hope for India in women's singles as young Malvika Bansod ousted in the opening round and PV Sindhu has withdrew from the tournament due to a stress fracture.
Earlier in the day, India's top two men's doubles pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and the duo of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila sailed into the quarterfinal with their respective round-16 wins.
Satwik and Chirag outplayed Danish duo of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede 21-12, 21-10 to set up a quarterfinal clash with depending champions Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan.
The rising duo of Arjun and Dhruv registered a come-from-behind victory over Terry Hee and Loh Kean Hean of Singapore. They will lock horns with the third-seeded veteran Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the the last eight stage for their maiden semifinal.
The young duo has created one of the biggest upsets of the 2022 Worlds in taking down last editions bronze medallists eighth seeded Danish combination of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the round of 32. This was the Indians’ first win over a top-10 pair.
This is the first time in badminton worlds that the two men's doubles pair from India entered the last-8 stage. (UNI)
