Badminton World Championships: Prannoy has his joy, Sen loses

PTI

Copenhagen, August 24

India’s HS Prannoy showed nerves of steel, advancing to his third successive quarterfinals at the World Championships with a fighting three-game win over former champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore here today.

World No. 9 Prannoy, who won the Malaysia Masters and finished runner-up at Australian Open this season, once again displayed his fighting qualities during his 21-18 15-21 21-19 win over the seventh-seeded Loh at the Royal Arena.

World No. 11 Lakshya Sen, however, couldn’t get past Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, going down 14-21 21-16 13-21 to bow out of the tournament.

Earlier, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stood one step away from another World Championships medal after reaching the quarterfinals with a three-game win over Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin.

The world No. 2 pair, which had claimed a maiden bronze in the last edition, bounced back from a mid-game slump to outwit world No. 10 Carnando and Marthin 21-15 19-21 21-9 in a Round-of-16 match that lasted a little over an hour.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag showed great anticipation and execution to dish out an attacking game.

Chirag was simply superb with his interceptions as he glided through the court and punished any weak returns from their rivals.

The Indian pairs had a slow start but Chirag and Satwiksairaj soon stepped up, bringing more discipline in their approach.

The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who reached the semifinals of the All England Championships in the last two editions, couldn’t sustain the attack and went down 14-21 9-21 in 42 minutes against top-seeded Chinese duo of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan.

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