Japan Open 2023 badminton: HS Prannoy trumps Kidambi Srikanth to make quarter-finals
Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen and doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also made the quarters in Tokyo.
Badminton
HS Prannoy beat compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in an all-Indian affair to make the men’s singles quarter-finals at the Japan Open 2023 badminton tournament in Tokyo on Thursday.
Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen also won his match at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium to make the last eight.
HS Prannoy, ranked 10th in the men’s singles badminton rankings, had to come from behind to beat world No. 20 Srikanth 19-21, 21-9, 21-9.
HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth went toe-to-toe in what was an exhilarating opening game. With the scores tied at 18-all, Srikanth caught the momentum at the crucial juncture and took the opening game.
A game down, HS Prannoy responded in style and took the next two games with a comprehensive margin to seal the match in 57 minutes.
This was HS Prannoy’s third win over Srikanth in nine head-to-head meetings. Interestingly, Prannoy’s last win over his senior compatriot heading into Thursday’s fixture came at the 2019 Japan Open.
Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, had very little trouble in his round of 16 match and dispatched Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama by a 21-14, 21-16 scoreline. Tsuneyama, an Asian Games bronze medallist, upset Indonesian world No. 2 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the opening round.
Another Japanese shuttler, Kiko Watanabe, will be Lakshya’s next opponent.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won the Korea Open men’s doubles title last week, also progressed after defeating the Danish duo of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede 21-17, 21-11. The Indians will face reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin of Chinese Taipei in the quarters.
The Indian women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, though, bowed out after losing a close match against Japan’s Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida. The Indian shuttlers lost 23-21, 21-19.
Results at the Japan Open will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.