Kuala Lumpur: Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy dished out another splendid show to progress to the men’s singles quarter-finals with a thrilling win over Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo in the Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament here on Thursday.
The world No. 8 Indian looked in fine fettle as he staved off the spirited challenge from world No. 19 Chico 21-9, 15-21, 21-16 in an hour and four minutes. The 30-year-old from Kerala will take on either Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong or Japan’s Kodai Naraoka next.
World No. 5 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, seeded seventh, also entered the men’s doubles quarter-finals after beating Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia 21-19, 22-20 in 49 minutes. Earlier, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand fought hard before going down 13-21, 21-15, 17-21 to Bulgaria’s Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva in the women’s doubles pre-quarterfinals.
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 an 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 an 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 the 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.