China Masters 2023: HS Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag storm into quarter-finals

Ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy and Asian Games gold winning pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the quarterfinals in their respective events at the China Masters badminton tournament here on Thursday. World championship bronze medallist Prannoy, the only surviving Indian in the men’s singles event, registered a comfortable 21-12 21-18 win over Magnus Johannesen of Denmark in the pre-quarterfinal match that lasted exactly 40 minutes. Prannoy, seeded eighth here, will now take on third seeded Japanese Kodai Naraoka in the last eight round. Besides Prannoy, world no.5 and top seeds Satwik and Chirag also kept the Indian flag flying by progressing to the quarterfinals of men’s doubles event with 21-15 21-16 win over Japanese duo of Akira Koga and Taichi Saito. They will next play Indonesian combination of Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin. Against Johannesen, Prannoy started on a bright note and used his smart play to race to a 6-1 lead in the first game before the Dane reduced it to 8-6 and then to 14-11. But the Indian used all his experience and engaged his opponent in long rallies to tire him out and pocket the first game. The second game was an intense affair as both the shuttlers fought tooth and nail till 15 points and then were tied at 18 apiece before Prannoy got the better of his opponent to close out the contest and seal his quarterfinal spot.