Prannoy makes early exit at Malaysia Super 1000 badminton tournament

The 32-year-old Indian, returning to action after the Paris Olympics, recovered from an opening-game reversal to stay in contention but fell short

Kuala Lumpur: Indian shuttler HS Prannoy‘s valiant fight ended in a narrow loss to China’s Li Shi Feng in the men’s singles second round at the Malaysia Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

The 32-year-old Indian, returning to action after the Paris Olympics, recovered from an opening-game reversal to stay in contention but fell short, losing 8-21, 21-15, 21-23 in an hour and 22 minutes to seventh seed Li.

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Earlier, the women’s doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 21-15, 19-21, 19-21 defeat to China’s Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in their round of 16 match.

In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, who had reached the final of the Syed Modi Super 300 International Tournament, went down 13-21, 20-22 to China’s seventh seed Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi in 44 minutes.

Later in the day, last year’s finalists in men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, along with the mixed doubles duo of Sathish Karunakaran/Aadya Variyath and Malvika Bansod, will take to the court.