Prannoy, the hero of India’s triumph in the Thomas Cup last year, defeated the 2021 World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 in a hard-fought encounter, the ninth-seeded Indian getting the better of his 7th ranked opponent in a 69-minute pre-quarterfinal encounter.
India’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too had to overcome a second-game slump to reach the last-eight stage, getting the better of the Indonesian pair of Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin, winning 21-15, 19-21, 21-9 in 61 minutes.
Hopes, however, ended for Lakshya Sen, the 2021 bronze medallist, as he went down to Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand. Lakshya put up a strong fight by winning the second game but could not ride the momentum in the decider and went down 14-21, 21-16, 13-21 to the Thailand player ranked third in the world.
The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who had made their mark by winning a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, lost their pre-quarterfinal match to China’s top-seeded pair of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan 14-21, 9-21 in just 42 minutes at Court 1 at the Royal Arena in the Denmark capital.
In their men’s singles pre-quarterfinals clash, Prannoy conceded an early lead in the first game before fighting back to level scores at 8-8. Loh took the lead again at 12-9 before the Indian shuttler equalised at 16-16 before surging to a 21-18 victory.
The trend continued in the second game and though Prannoy caught up with Loh at 13-13, the Singapore shuttler did not allow him more chances and grabbed the remaining points to win the second game 21-15.
Prannoy raced to a 4-0 lead in the decider and though Loh brought it down to 4-3, the 31-year-old World No.9 won consecutive points to open a 9-3 lead and extended it to 11-4. The 2021 World Champion Loh launched another comeback and reduced the gap to 11-10 but Prannoy won the next four points.
Loh won five consecutive points to take a 16-14 lead but Prannoy could not be denied on Thursday as he caught up with his opponent at 19-19 and went on to win the game and match and seal a place in the quarterfinals.
In the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals, Satwik and Chirag took control from 12-10 in the first game and surged to a 17-11 lead. They went on to win the first game 21-15 to make a bright start in the match.
In the second game, after the lead changed hands a few times initially, the Indians led 8-5 and then extended it to 11-8 before the Indonesians came back strongly to level scores and take a 14-11 lead. Satwik and Chirag narrowed the gap in the neck-and-neck battle and levelled the scores at 17-17. The scores were tied again at 18-all and 19-19 before the Indonesians won two successive points to win the game 21-19.
In the decider, the Indian pair jumped to a 3-1 lead and though the Indonesians levelled scores at 4-4, Satwik and Chirag opened a two-point lead and from 7-6 won the five successive points to take a 12-6 lead. They maintained their advantage and went on to win the game 21-9 to win the match and now await the winner of the match between Denmark’s Anders Skaarup Rasmussen-Kim Ashtrup and Malayia’s seventh-seeded Yi Ee Teo and Yew Siri Ong.
–Ajit Weekly News
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