IMAGE: HS Prannoy downed compatriot Kidambi Srikanth to enter the last 8 of the Japan Open on Thursday. Photographs: Kind courtesy BWF/Twitter
India’s HS Prannoy prevailed in the match of compatriots after Lakshya Sen and the in-form men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty sailed into the quarter-finals of the Japan Open badminton in Tokyo on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sen advanced to the quarters with a convincing pre-quarterfinals 21-14, 21-16 win over Japanese shuttler Kanta Tsuneyama in straight sets.
Fresh from their triumph in the Korea Open, the Indian men’s doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj and Chirag too secured progress to the last-eight stage with their dominant win over the Danish pair of Lasse Molhede and Jeppe Bay.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag won 21-17, 21-11.
Then, in the match between compatriots Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, the former emerged victorious with a 19-21, 21-9, 21-9 win to advance to the quarters of the Super 750 tournament.
However, the Indian women’s pairing of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly suffered an exit despite their valiant efforts against Nami Matsuyama and Chiraru Shida in their round-of-16 outing. They lost 21-23, 19-21.
Sen’s win over the 27-year-old Japanese shuttler took 50 minutes and, having cruised to win in the opening game, the man from Almora never let slip the advantage and grabbed the match quite comfortably.
Prannoy lost the opening game to Srikanth but fought back strongly to claim the next two games and progress to the next stage of the tournament.
For the duo of Satwik and Chirag, it turned out to be an easy outing as they won in straight games. The reigning Asian champions won the Korea Open (Super 500), Swiss Open (Super 300) and Indonesia Open (Super 1000) titles this season.
The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.
One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.
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