Ace Indian commuter HS Prannoy recorded an upset victory over Japanese world No. 2 Kento Momota to set up a pre-quarter-final clash against compatriot Lakshya Sen at the 2022 BWF World Championships, but Kidambi Srikanth was knocked out in the second round , Wednesday.
Prannoy, who hadn’t beaten the Japanese ace in their previous seven encounters, won the clash 21-17, 21-16 in Momota’s backyard.
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“I didn’t really expect it (the victory). It has always been difficult to play it in the past because it is the highest level of badminton. I knew I had to be very disciplined against him and it was really important to pace the game well. to know which points to push and even which points I could lose,” Prannoy said after his win over two-time world champion Momota.
“His knowledge is still the best but it’s a good win for me and I’m happy to play another round. I worked a lot on the mental and I was as calm as possible. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but it was good,” he added.
Meanwhile, Lakshya, the defending Commonwealth Games men’s singles badminton champion and 2021 Worlds bronze medalist, beat Spain’s Luis Enrique Penalver 21-17, 21-10 in his Round of 16 match. at the Tokyo Metropolitan Arena.
The Indian commuter, world number 10, started his match slowly and found himself trailing 6-4 against an opponent placed 64 places below him. Ninth-seeded Lakshya then stepped on the gas and scored the next nine points on a trot to take control of the opener and finally saw it.
Meanwhile, the second game turned out to be a one-sided affair with the Spaniard struggling to report Sen’s shuttle placement. The Indian badminton player concluded the competition in 36 short minutes.
However, former world No. 1 Srikanth, who last year became the first Indian to play in a world championships final, suffered a disappointing end to his 2022 campaign after an upset 9-21, 17-21 loss. against Chinese player Zhao Jun Peng. .
Peng, the world number 26, dominated Srikanth in the opener then produced a mature display to thwart the Indian’s attempt to equalize in the second.
In men’s doubles, India’s top Birmingham Commonwealth Games champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy edged the Guatemalan side of Jonathan Solis and Anibal Marroquin 21-8, 21-10 to advance to the quarter-finals. Chirag and Satwik had earned a first-round bye.
The surprise of the day, however, came from the Indian pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, who upset the eight-seeded Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, last year’s bronze medalists, by a 21-17, 21-16 scoreline to advance to the knockout stages.
In women’s doubles, Birmingham Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly lost 8-21, 17-21 to CWG gold medalists Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia.
Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also lost 15-21, 10-21 to Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalists Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China.
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