New Delhi: H.S. Prannoy stunned world no. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in straight games to storm into the men’s singles quarter-finals but India suffered huge setback in women’s event with both Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu crashing out of the Indonesia Super Series Premier In Jakarta on Thursday.
K. Srikanth notched up a 21-15, 20-22, 21-16 victory over the fourth seed, Denmark’s Jan O. Jorgensen, to join Prannoy in the quarter-finals in the $1,000,000 tournament.
Saina and Sindhu both lost their second round matches in three-game affairs. Saina went down to Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 15-21, 21-6, 16-21 while fourth seed Sindhu suffered a 21-15, 12- 21, 18-21 defeat at the hands of Beiwing Zhang of the United States.
Former no. 1 Saina, now ranked 15th, lost the first game to her 14th-ranked opponent but stormed back to claim the second by a huge margin, only to lose the decider.
World no. 25 Prannoy, who went into the match with a 0-2 head-to-head record against Lee, saw off the three-time Olympic silver medallist 21-10, 21-18 in a 40-minute contest at the Jakarta Convention Center.
Srikanth battled hard to register an impressive victory over Jorgensen to make the quarters.
Prannoy next faces Olympic champion Chen Long of China.
Prannoy opened up a 6-0 lead in the opening game and then jumped to a 10-3 advantage. After the break, the Indian continued to move ahead.
In the second game, Prannoy took a 10-6 lead, which was quickly erased by Lee, going up 13-12.
Prannoy soon surged to 17-14 but Lee levelled the scores again. The Indian kept his composure to foil the top seed’s hopes of clinching a record seventh Indonesian title.
World no. 22 Srikanth had to toil hard to get across the ninth ranked Jorgensen. The 24-year-old had beaten Jorgensen in straight games during their last meeting at the Rio Olympics and needed 57 minutes to win on Thursday.
The opening game was closely fought, level at 10-10. But Srikanth pulled away with four straight points to grab the game.
The second game progressed similarly until Jorgensen got a 15-12 lead. Srikanth clawed back, making it at 20-20, but lost the game.
In the decider, Jogensen zoomed to a 5-0 advantage but Srikanth showed tremendous grit in the face of adversity to turned the tables with six straight points.
