HS Prannoy defeated Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo in the round of 16 at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 on Thursday.
The 30-year-old from Kerala won the contest against the Indonesian 21-9, 15-21, 21-16 in an hour and four minutes.
The women’s doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly lost to the Stoeva sisters, Stefani and Gabriela, of Bulgaria 13-21, 21-15, 17-21.
For Prannoy, it was his second meeting with Chico, who had defeated him at the 2018 Syed Modi International.
In the form of his life, Prannoy made a good start, showing better control and his attack also earned him dividends as he led 7-5 before grabbing a 11-5 cushion at the interval.
With Chico struggling with the drifty conditions, Prannoy ran away with the opening game.
After the change of ends, Chico showed better control as he eked out a 6-2 lead following a net exchange with his opponent. The Indonesian seemed to attack more and soon moved to a 11-5 lead at the interval.
Both players looked to push each other in the rallies but Prannoy made errors in his finishing as Chico marched to 17-11 with a reverse slice.
The Indonesian soon roared back into contest after converting five game points.
In the decider, Prannoy was all fired up as he landed some precise returns on the lines to move to 5-2. He managed to keep his rival moving to and fro with his angled returns, extracting errors to take a handsome five-point lead at the break.
Prannoy was spot on with his shot selection, landing his straight and cross court smashes away from his diving opponent to accumulate points.
Chico played some lovely shots but he was inconsistent during the rallies as Prannoy established his five-point advantage at 17-12 . Another razor sharp straight jump smash followed by another shot at the backline gave Prannoy six match points.
The Indonesian saved two before sending one to the net as Prannoy celebrated.
The Stoeva sisters, who competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, were clearly the better players in the opening game as they quickly jumped to a 6-0 lead and then held their fort, despite a mini fightback from the Indians, who brought the equation down to 9-12 at one stage.
The second game was a tight affair as Treesa and Gayatri kept breathing down their opponent’s neck before breaking off at 14-14 to take the match to the decider.
In the third game, the Indian pair had slender leads of 6-4 and 14-13 but the Bulgarian combination didn’t relent this time, moving ahead from 14-14 to seal the contest.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy got the better of Indonesian pair Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana as they walked out winners in a closely fought 21-19, 22-20 victory.
On Wednesday, Prannoy had registered a come-from-behind 22-24, 21-12, 21-18 victory over Lakshya Sen, ranked 10th, in an edgy opening-round contest to make a positive start. Meanwhile, the men’s doubles pair Satwik and Chirag trounced the world No. 9 Korean combination of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho to win 21-16, 21-13.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu suffered a loss at the hands of familiar foe Rio 2016 champion Carolina Marin of Spain lost 12-21, 21-10, 15-21 in the opening round.
Earlier on Tuesday, Saina Nehwal went down fighting 12-21, 21-17, 12-21 to Han Yue of China in the first round and Aakarshi Kashyap too suffered defeat in her first round at the hands of Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei 10-21, 8-21.
Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze medallist women’s doubles pair Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly progressed in the pre-quarterfinals and the Kidambi Srikanth suffered a first-round exit with a 19-21, 14-21 loss to world No. 17 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan on Tuesday.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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