Srikanth, Prannoy advance to 2nd round

Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy advanced to the second round of the men's singles competition at the $1,000,000 Indonesia Super Series Premier here on Wednesday.

The world No. 29 Prannoy saw off 20th ranked Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-13 21-18 in a 43-minute battle. He will next face top seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei.

Srikanth then staved off a challenge from Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-15 17-21 21-16 in a 56-minute match. He is likely to clash with fourth seeded Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark next.

After back-to-back titles at Singapore and Thailand, B Sai Praneeth bowed out in the opening round following a 14-21 18-21 loss against second seeded Son Wan Ho of Korea in 40 minutes.

The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also suffered a 9-21 19-21 loss against Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto. It was also curtains for Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy after the duo suffered a 21-19 19-21 13-21 loss to the Indonesia combo of Dian Fitriani and Nadya Melati.

Coming into the match with a 1-2 head-to-head record, Srikanth made sure he left after levelling their score. The Indian dished out a gritty game as he fought hard from the start, before breaking off at 7-7 in the opening game to eventually earn the bragging rights.

In the second, Wong opened up a 7-3 lead and kept his distance despite some tough competition from Srikanth, who had narrowed down the deficit to 16-18. But Wong sealed the game and roared back into contest.

In the decider, Srikanth fought back from 6-8 and 11-13 down to reel off six straight points at 14-14 to eventually comfortably seal the match in his favour.