Indonesia Open 2018: HS Prannoy stuns Chinese legend Lin Dan in first round; Sameer Verma beats Rasmus Gemke

Jakarta: HS Prannoy stunned the legendary Lin Dan of China while compatriot Sameer Verma pipped Rasmus Gemke of Denmark to advance to the second round of the Indonesia Open badminton event on Tuesday. World No 13 Prannoy started off well against eighth-ranked Lin Dan, winning the first game 21-15. However, the Chinese shuttler came back strong to win the second 21-9 and level the match. Prannoy then dug deep into his reservoir to see off the iconic shuttler 21-14 at the US$ 1,250,000 event. Prannoy had also got the better of Lin Dan at the 2015 French Open.

BREAKING: Waoooo, giant killer @PRANNOYHSPRI defeats Lin Dan!!! 🔥🏸🇮🇳👏👏👏

The 8th seed beat Super Dan 21-15; 9-21;21-14 in the first round of #IndonesiaOpenSuper1000 What a come back Prannoy, way to go Champ! Kudos #IndiaontheRise #BestofBadminton pic.twitter.com/HUQ1Qnfszg

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 3, 2018

In other matches, Verma scraped past Gemke 21-9 12-21 22-20 in a match lasting little over an hour. However, it was curtains for women’s doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram, who went down to the Indonesian pair of Agatha Imanuela and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 11-21 18-21. Other Indians in the fray, Sai Praneeth and Saina Nehwal, are scheduled to play later in the day.