Prannoy sails into quarterfinals of Taipei Open 2023

Kashyap, Tanya Hemanth, Rohan Kapoor-Sikki Reddy ousted from Taipei Open

Taipei: India’s mixed results at the Taipei Open 2023 continued with top singles star HS Prannoy advancing to the quarterfinals while former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap and women’s singles player Tanya Hemanth were ousted in the second round on Thursday.

The mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy also went out in the second round, losing to a local pair on Thursday. Prannoy defeated Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-9, 21-17 in 36 minutes in the men’s singles Round of 16 while Kashyap went down to Li Yang Su of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-17 in a second-round clash at the Court 1 in Tian-Mu Arena.

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In the women’s singles, Tanya Hemanth went down to World No.4 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, 21-11, 21-6 in 29 minutes. Tanya had defeated Hungary’s Agnes Korosi 21-7, 21-17 in the first round. In the mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy lost to the local pair of Hsiang Chien Chiu and Xiao Min Lin 21-13, 21-18 in just 29 minutes.

Playing against Sugiarto on Court 2, Prannoy, who had defeated Chinese Taipei’s Yu Hsien Lin 21-11, 21-10 in the first round, opened up a lead by winning seven-point from 2-1. He extended it to 11-2 soon.

From 13-3, he maintained his advantage and went on to win it 21-9. Sugiarto came out fighting in the second game and took a 5-1 lead. He extended the lead to 8-2 before Prannoy came fighting back to reduce it to 10-7.

He continued to claw his way back into the game and eventually caught up with Sugiarto at 15-all. The Indian World No. 9 won four points from 17-17 to win the second game 21-17 and advance to the quarterfinals. Playing against Li Yang Su, Kashyap went ahead at 3-2 but his opponent caught up with him at 7-7 before Li opened a 12-7 lead.

From 9-14 down, Kashyap fought back to reduce the margin to 14-15 before the Chinese Taipei star pulled ahead and went to win the game 21-16. The Chinese Taipei shuttler went ahead 5-1 in the second game before Kashyap closed the gap to 7-8. Kashyap caught up with him at 12-all before his opponent won the next four points to make it 16-12.

Kashyap again reduced the margin to 16-15 and fought for each point but the Chinese Taipei player went on to win the second game 21-17 to secure a place in the quarterfinal.