Malaysia Open: Prannoy wins, Praneeth, Sameer suffer losses

Kuala Lumpur: India’s HS Prannoy faced stiff resistance before prevailing against local hero Daren Liew as the Indian shuttler progressed to the men’s singles second round of the Malaysia Open, here on Tuesday. A former top-10 player, Prannoy, who had reached the semifinals of Indonesia Open Super 1000 earlier this month, emerged a 21-14,17-21,21-18 winner […]

Kuala Lumpur: India’s HS Prannoy faced stiff resistance before prevailing against local hero Daren Liew as the Indian shuttler progressed to the men’s singles second round of the Malaysia Open, here on Tuesday.

A former top-10 player, Prannoy, who had reached the semifinals of Indonesia Open Super 1000 earlier this month, emerged a 21-14,17-21,21-18 winner in 62 minutes. The 29-year-old from Kerala will face fourth seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei next at the Super 750 badminton tournament.

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Prannoy’s win brought some cheers to the Indian camp after B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma made early exits. While Praneeth went down to world number six Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, Sameer lost to world number 8 Jonatan Christie, also from Indonesia. The 30-year-old Praneeth, currently ranked world number 19, lost 15-21 21-19 9-21 to Ginting in a 50-minute men’s single match.

This was eight meeting between the two players with the Indonesian now leading the head-to-head record 5-3. They last played at the 2020 Asian Team championships where Ginting won the contest after Praneeth retired due to an injury. Sameer, who is making a comeback from injury, fought for 49 minutes before losing 14-21 21-13 7-21 in another match.

In doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty recorded a comfortable 21-18, 21-11 victory over the pair of Wei Chong Man and Wun Tee Kai. The women’s pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also bowed out of the tournament after losing 15-21,11-21 to Japanese duo of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida, seeded sixth.