Lone wolf Prannoy in quarters

Jakarta, June 16

HS Prannoy, one of the heroes of India’s epic Thomas Cup triumph, continued his good form as he stormed into the quarterfinals of the Indonesia

Open Super 1000 with a straight-game win over Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus here today.

The 29-year-old Keralite, who is looking to end his five-year title drought, dished out another impressive performance to outwit Angus 21-11 21-18 in a second-round match that lasted 41 minutes.

It was Prannoy’s fourth win over the 27-year-old, who is currently ranked 12th in the world. Prannoy will next face either Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke or France’s Brice Leverdez.

Sameer Verma’s campaign also ended with a 10-21 13-21 loss to world No. 5 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia. This was Verma’s fifth loss to Jia in seven meetings.

In the women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy bowed out after losing 16-21 13-21 to top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China. The men’s doubles pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also lost, going down 19-21 15-21 to China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.