Badminton world championships: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen in Rd 2; Srikanth out

Copenhagen, August 21

Star Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen progressed to the men’s singles second round of the World Championships with straight-game wins over Finland’s Kalle Koljonen and Mauritius’ Georges Julien Paul, respectively, here today.

World No. 9 Prannoy, who reached the quarterfinals in the last two editions, saw off the left-handed Koljonen 24-22 21-10 to extend his head-to-head count against the Finnish player to 3-0.

Sen then streamrollered Paul 21-12 21-7 in 25 minutes to follow Prannoy into the second round.

Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth made a first-round exit, going down to 14th seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 14-21 14-21 in a 47-minute battle.

The match between Prannoy and Koljonen turned into a tight battle in the opening game with the Finnish player quick to open up an 8-4 lead. But Prannoy reeled off seven straight points to grab an 11-8 lead at the break.

An exciting battle ensued after the resumption with Koljonen eventually grabbing three game points after pushing one away from the forehand of his opponent.

A calm Prannoy, however, saved all three game points before hitting wide to once again hand over the advantage to his rival.

A backhand block at the net helped him save another game point but he sprayed the next one into the net as it was 22-21 in favour of the Finnish player. However, Koljonen couldn’t capitalise as he hit long and lost a net duel to gift Prannoy the lead, who converted with a brutal crosscourt smash.

The second game started on an even keel with Prannoy leading 6-5 at one stage. However, the Indian soon zoomed to a six-point lead at the break with a straight smash.

The Indian kept moving ahead with Koljonen finding it hard to negotiate the angles and deceptions of Prannoy, who gained 12 match points and never looked back.