HS Prannoy stunned second seed Kento Momota in straight games to record a sensational win while reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen also sailed into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday. (More Badminton News)
Unseeded Prannoy rose abo🌺ve expectations to shut the door on crowd favourite and two-timꩵe former world champion Momota 21-17 21-16 in a second round tie.
Incidentally, it was Prannoy's first win over Momota in eight matches. In their previous clashes, the Indian won only one game againstꦆ his higher-rated Japanese rival.
Earlier in he day, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen sailed into the pre-quarterfinals with a straight game win over Spain's Luis Penalver.
The young Indian badminton ace Sen won his second round contest 21-17 21-10, taking 72 minut🧸e🃏s to complete the formality.
Prannoy and Sen will🧸 face each other in an all-Indian last 16 clash on Thursday.
However, last edition's runner-up Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of after a straight game defeat to world number 32 Zhao🐼 Jun Peng.
Srikanth went ﷽down against his Chinese counterpart 18-21, 17-21 in a match lasting only 34 minutes.
The 29-year-oldไ was out of sorts in the opening game as it took only 12 minutes for Zhao to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Indian, already on the back foot, tried to up the ante in the second game and led 16-14 but too many u♕nforced errors helped Zhao secure the victory.
The young Indian badminton ace Sen won his sec☂ond ro💛und contest 21-17 21-10, taking 72 minutes to complete the formality.
After trailing 3-4, the ninth seeded Sen grabbed a six-point lead to be 13-7. The Indian continued to stay ahe✃ad before comfortably wrapping up the first game.
Sen, a world championship bronze medallist, then maintained his stranglehold over the Spanish🌱 sh🤡uttler and won the second game by a bigger margin.
In the second game, the first six points were shared between the twꦐo players, but the 21-year-old Indian pulled ahead riding on his superior play.
Enjoying a massive nine-point🐲 lead at one stage of the second game, it was only a matter of time before Sen completed the job.
Earlier, the Indian men's doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila moved🌼 to the pre-quarterfinals but Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy made a second round exit from the p🧜restigious tournament.
The unseeded Arjun and Kapila upstaged eighth seeds and last edition's bronze medallists Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasꦚmussen of Denmark 21-17 21-16 in their second round match.
They will face Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kea🐼n Hean of Singa🅰pore next.
Ponnappa and Sikki,🍸 on the other hand, were handed a 15-21 10-21 loss by top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in 42 minutes.
The other women's doubles pairing of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh's also crashed out of the tournamen🍌t༺, going down to third seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of Korea 15-21 7-21.
The eighth seeded men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy thrashed Guatemala's Solis Jonathan and Anibal Marroquin 21-8 21-10 to storm into Round of 1💟6, where the duo will be up against Denmark's Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede.
