Auckland: Fourth seed HS Prannoy and unseeded Sourabh Verma booked their last eight berths Thursday in the New Zealand Open badminton tournament here.
Prannoy advanced with a 21-18, 21-19 win over Hong Kong’s Wei Nan in men’s singles while Verma defeated compatriot Parupalli Kashyap 21-18, 13-21, 21-16 in a match that lasted 64 minutes at the North Shore Events Centre here.
Prannoy will now face 11th seed Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei while Verma will take on Israel’s Misha Zilberman.
However, it was curtains for young Siril Verma after he lost 13-21, 14-21 to Chia Hung Lu of Chinese Taipei.
Prannoy had lost to Wei at the Malaysia Open in 2014 but he avenged his loss Thursday after dishing out a gritty performance.
Both games were closely fought with the lead changing hands several times. However, it was Prannoy’s expertise at the net that sealed the match in his favour. In the first game, the player from Hong Kong led 13-9 at one stage before Prannoy reeled off five points in a row to establish his supremacy.
“It was a good match to win, hopefully I will be able to continue with the momentum in the quarterfinals,” Prannoy said after the tie.