Paris: Indian shuttler HS Prannoy dumped Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in straight games to progress to the men’s singles quarterfinals of the French Open Super Series here in a match late Thursday evening. Prannoy took just 31 minutes to see off Vittinghus 21-11, 21-12 to set up a clash with 2016 Australian Open finalist Jeon Hyeok-jin of Korea.
“Good win against Vittinghus last night to advance to the Quarterfinals!! Tricky one awaiting later in Friday evening,” Prannoy tweeted after the match. The Indian had lost to the World No. 31 Jeon in the Canada Open in a close match this year.
Prannoy was at his devastating best to unsettle the Danish player from the start of the contest. He built up early leads in both the games and never lost his grip. The Indian’s bodyline smashes had Vittinghus back-tracking for most part of the encounter. Prannoy finally ended the Danish player’s misery with a cross-court drop to win in 29 minutes.
However, it was curtains for Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth after he lost 13-21, 17-21 to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in another match played late Thursday evening. Praneeth was never in the fray committing a large number of unforced errors as the Japanese controlled the pace of the game with some lovely tosses.
The young Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, meanwhile, notched up a stunning 22-20, 12-21, 21-19 win over the World No.6 Danish combo of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding to reach their second quarterfinal of the season. In an encounter where fortunes swung like a pendulum, the Indian combo held their nerves to emerge victorious in an hour.
“We are very happy to win the match today (Wednesday). We were leading 16-8 in the third game but made some simple errors and it was 19-all. Somehow we managed to win,” Chirag said after the match.
The Indian pair will square off against another Danish pair of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, who are the 2012 London Games silver medallists.
Press Trust of India
