The in-form world No 9 HS Prannoy made a solid start to his campaign at the Taipei Open Super 300, in Chinese Taipei on Wednesday. The third seed came up with a straight-forward 21-11, 21-10 win over home-player and qualifier Lin Yu Hsien to make it to the second round of the event.
Joining him in the pre-quarterfinal is former world No 6 Parupalli Kashyap who beat German qualifier Samuel Hsiao 21-15, 21-16.
Prannoy and Lin started relatively even with both shuttlers staying level on the score till 10-10. From that point though, the Indian won 11 of the next 12 points – including nine in a row to go up 19-10 – to claim the opening game.
In the second, Prannoy took a lead after being level at 2-2 and would not allow Lin to comeback into the match before sealing a spot in the second round. He next plays former world No 3 Tommy Sugiarto, who has dropped down to 95 in the current rankings.
There was also a win for Tanya Hemanth in the women’s singles Round of 32, as she beat Hungary’s Agnes Korosi 21-7, 21-17.
Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy also booked a spot in the second round of the mixed doubles event after a 21-14, 21-17 win over compatriots Bokka Navaneeth and Priya Konjengbam.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian however, lost 13-21, 5-21 to sixth seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan. Meiraba Luwang Maisnam also lost out in a close match to fifth seed Ng Ka Long Angus.
There was also a defeat in women’s singles for Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, who lost 12-21, 5-21 to Chiu Pin-Chian of Chinese Taipei.
Kiran George’s run also ended after a 20-22, 21-12, 9-21 loss to Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran lost 10-21, 10-21 to Chi Yu Jen.
Aakarshi Kashyap also lost out in the first round of the women’s singles event, going down 21-10, 16-21, 11-21 to local player Huang Yu-Hsun.
In the last match of the day involving an Indian, Mithun Manjunath lost a tough contest to second seed Chou Tien Chen 18-21, 21-14, 16-21.
Here’s a look at the Indian results from Wednesday:
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