Summary: 

HS Prannoy defeats world No 7 and 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew 22-20, 21-19 to reach quarterfinals. Will face Chou Tien Chen next on Friday. Srikanth Kidambi later loses in straight games against Kanta Tsuneyama.

HS Prannoy vs Chou Tien Chen H2H:

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 16-21 Kanta Tsuneyama: Here’s how the second game panned out.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 16-21 Kanta Tsuneyama: Defeats one of the best players in the world in straight games one day, loses in straight games -10 & -16 against a player ranked a bit lower than him the next. Mystery wrapped in an enigma, is Srikanth.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 16-20 Kanta Tsuneyama: Saves one match point with a crosscourt winner after a flat exchange.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 15-20 Kanta Tsuneyama: Sends another shuttle into the net and five match points for Kanta.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 15-18 Kanta Tsuneyama: Sigh, such a well constructed point by Srikanth and then he misses the sideline by some distance going for the smash. That must be beyond frustrating for his fans, for him and for him coaches too.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 15-17 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth in trouble again. Tsuneyama has upped the ante and Srikanth is unable to follow the pace.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 14-15 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth slips while lunging and the point goes away, next rally goes Kanta’s way as well as Sri sends one wide. Error at the net and now the home shuttler is in the lead. It was coming,

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 13-12 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth managing to just stay ahead at the moment but Tsuneyama is playing at a good level now. If the Indian doesn’t open up a cushion here he is going to be in trouble.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 11-9 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth has upped the pace, he is playing with much better intensity (even though the errors are still mostly coming from his racket), and has a lead at the second-game interval.

(Score updated in the previous post)

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21, 8-6 Kanta Tsuneyama: Slightly better in the opening exchanges of the 2nd game but he is still not playing with any great control. Mostly reactive badminton.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-21 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth needs to hit the reset button. That was not anywhere close to the level he was playing at yesterday.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 10-18 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth has a huge deficit in the game now, it’s not worked for him in the opening game.

“Absolute madness,” says the commentators. This is really bizarre on Court 1 in the women’s doubles match.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 8-13 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth gets the serve back with a nice straight smash, plays a couple of delightful net shots in the net rally. But smashes one into the net. Gets the serve back again with a good net shot, needs a run of points here.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 5-11 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth gets the length right finally on a punch clear to the backcourt but he has let the shuttles drop in on his side a few times. Not a good start for him, needs to find some rhythm soon.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 4-8 Kanta Tsuneyama: Srikanth needed that, first winner of quality from home since the opening rally. Good crosscourt net shot.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 3-8 Kanta Tsuneyama: Superb crosscourt winner from Kanta after a nice rally.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 3-6 Kanta Tsuneyama: Side drift seems to be bother Srikanth. Errors flowing at the start, he needs to find his radar soon.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 2-3 Kanta Tsuneyama: Wide from Srikanth thrice in a row.

Men’s singles, round of 16, Srikanth Kidambi 2-0 Kanta Tsuneyama: We are underway with a nice long rally that goes Srikanth’s way.

Men’s singles: Srikanth, who defeated Lee Zii Jia, will take on Kanta Tsuneyama shortly.

Will this go to a decider?

Men’s singles: Srikanth’s match will start once this ends. Will not be on TV Court.

Men’s singles: Check out the net shots to take the opening game and then to make it 17-17 in the 2nd game. Fabulous from HS Prannoy today at the front-court.

Men’s singles: That is a stunner of a scoreline as the World Championships silver medallist goes down in an all-Thai battle.

Men’s singles: HS Prannoy will next take on recently crowned bronze medallist at the World Championships, Chou Tien Chen. Prannoy is 3-4 on H2H with CTC but their two meetings this year have gone Prannoy’s way in Malaysia and Singapore. (Corrected)

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 21-19 Loh Kean Yew: Here’s how the 2nd game panned out. Another fabulous turnaround. Loh seemed to have at least forced the decider with his big lead but Prannoy kept closing the gap own. From 12-17, he won 7 straight points. Prannoy extends the H2H to 3-1 against Loh.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 21-19 Loh Kean Yew: Shuttle sails wide from Loh and Prannoy has, SOMEHOW, won this in straight games! Loh had huge leads in both the games but the Indian didn’t give up. That is a serious performance.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 20-19 Loh Kean Yew: Srikanth will be proud of the net-play from Prannoy today. What a display. Another lovely net shot sets up a smash. Two match points. But Loh saves one with a lovely smash.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 19-18 Loh Kean Yew: Some nice body attacks there Prannoy and the response from Loh is a loose return that Prannoy has put away. The Indian is 2 points away but Loh nails a smash and gets the serve back after a 20-shot rally.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 17-17 Loh Kean Yew: Superb fightback once again from Prannoy and it is a 1-point game. Oh, make that all level after a brilliant net exchange.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 12-17 Loh Kean Yew: Superb reverse slice from Loh! That was Tai Tzu Ying-esque. Prannoy couldn’t get it back over.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 11-16 Loh Kean Yew: Sensational defence from Prannoy to stay in the rally but pressure pays for Loh. He really needed that point. Huge celebration at the end.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 11-15 Loh Kean Yew: Some errors from both players now. Suddenly, Prannoy is in decent distance behind Loh.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 6-14 Loh Kean Yew: Seems like Prannoy is now trying to take the pace off and move Loh front and back but he is making too many errors at the moment.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 4-11 Loh Kean Yew: Solid lead for Loh in the 2nd game. Mostly short points here and Prannoy missed by some distance on his crosscourt shots especially. A decider would seem imminent at this point.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20, 4-8 Loh Kean Yew: Singaporean has started the 2nd game better, Prannoy catches up to 4-4 but Loh pulls ahead again. A pumped up Loh is swinging hard at the moment.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 22-20 Loh Kean Yew: Superb from the Indian shuttler in the opening game, where he trailed 11-17 and then faced three game points at 17-20. But he wins five points in a row to take the lead vs Loh Kean Yew. The last point was also set up by delightful play at the net.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 21-20 Loh Kean Yew: Lovely smash to Loh’s forehand by HSP and he has a game point now. That was Momota-esque.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 20-20 Loh Kean Yew: Ouch, now Loh’s turn to make soft errors. Two backhands he slams into the net. And Prannoy has saved all three game points, with a body attack.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 17-20 Loh Kean Yew: Oh that will hurt Prannoy. He had the kill at the net after a good rally but pushes the shuttle long, loses his challenges as well. Loh plays a delightful slice to have three game points.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 17-17 Loh Kean Yew: And we are level. Great 1-2 combo from the Indian to draw Loh forward and close it out with the smash.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 16-17 Loh Kean Yew: A fantastic net shot from Prannoy. One point game.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 15-17 Loh Kean Yew: A couple of points from Prannoy to close the gap to four. A solid rally again, another lift goes long for Loh. Great kill at the net next point... two points in this.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 11-17 Loh Kean Yew: A sustained spell of pressure from Loh here. A superb straight down the line smash to go up six points.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 10-15 Loh Kean Yew: After the break, the pace has gone up from both players. Looks like we have entered the second stage of a boxing match so to speak. But this will work well for Loh, who likes speed. A big lead now.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 8-11 Loh Kean Yew: A run of 5 straight points for Loh as we head into the mid-game interval. The last couple of those were a bit soft from Prannoy’s side.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 8-10 Loh Kean Yew: A really good rally at 8-6, ends with a forehand block from HSP into the net. It’s a fine exchange from both both players though. But soon after from Loh into a lead now.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy 7-5 Loh Kean Yew: A very even start to the proceedings in slow conditions, but Prannoy is slowly moving ahead as well. There is evidently some strong drift in play here, given what the players’ reactions are telling us.

Men’s singles, round of 16, HS Prannoy vs Loh Kean Yew: We are underway. A 26-shot rally to start things off, this should be quite good.

Time for HS Prannoy vs Loh Kean Yew, the rematch of the 2021 World championships quarterfinal.

Hello and welcome to Scroll.in’s coverage of the Japan Open Super 750 tournament, where it is pre-quarterfinals day and there are two Indians in action.

Japan Open Super 750: Srikanth stuns world No 4 Lee Zii Jia; Lakshya, Dhruv-Arjun bow out

Screenshots in the blog courtesy BWF / Viacom 18 / Tournament Software