Japan Open 2022 badminton: HS Prannoy ousts Loh Kean Yew; Kidambi Srikanth out
HS Prannoy beat former badminton champion Loh Kean Yew in straight games to make the quarter-finals while Kidambi Srikanth fell to Kanta Tsuneyama in the round of 16.
Badminton
Indian shuttler HS Prannoy is through to the men’s singles quarter-finals at the Japan Open 2022 badminton tournament.
HS Prannoy brought out his best game to get the better of former world champion and eighth-seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore on Thursday (1 September), winning 22-20, 21-19 in 44 minutes.
This latest victory continues Prannoy’s spate of giant-killing wins over the past week, with the Indian badminton player having beaten two-time world champion Kento Momota and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen at the world championships last week.
HS Prannoy has also beaten legends like Lin Dan and Taufik Hidayat over the course of his career.
He will now face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the quarter-finals in Osaka. Chou Tien Chen is seeded fourth and won the bronze medal at last week’s world championships after making it to the semi-finals, where he fell to eventual champion Viktor Axelsen.
Prannoy is the last remaining Indian in the Japan Open after Kidambi Srikanth was knocked out following a 21-10, 21-16 loss to local favourite Kanta Tsuneyama.
Kidambi Srikanth, the former world No.1 and CWG 2022 bronze-medallist, had dug deep to beat All England champion Lee Zii Jia in the previous round but that seemed to have taken its toll as he barely challenged Tsuneyama.