Jakarta, June 16 (agency)
HS Prannoy, one of the architects of India’s historic win in the Thomas Cup, continued his stellar form as he stormed into the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament by defeating Ang Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in straight games. The 29-year-old from Kerala registered a 21-11, 21-18 victory in 41 minutes. It was his fourth win against world number 12 Ang. Prannoy will now face either Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke or France’s Bryce Leverdez. Among other Indian players, Sameer Verma crashed out after losing in straight games to world No. 5 Lee Ji Jia of Malaysia. Former world number 11 Sameer was defeated by sixth seed Lee 21-10, 21-13. It was Sameer’s fifth defeat in seven matches against Lee. Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also crashed out after losing 16-21, 13-21 to top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Phan. MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost 19-21, 15-21 to Yu Chen and Yu Xuan for China.
