Press Trust of India
Macau, Nov 26: Two-time defending champion PV Sindhu took another step towards retaining her women’s singles title by reaching the quarterfinals of the USD 1,20,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, here Thursday. Seeded-fifth the Indian, defeated Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri 21-17, 21-18 in a match that lasted 46 minutes. She will next face China’s Chen Yufei.
In the men’s singles, seventh seed HS Prannoy saw off China’s Qiao Bin 12-21, 21-11, 21-19 in a gruelling match that lasted 65 minutes to set up a date with 16th seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia.
B Sai Praneeth, seeded 15th, defeated Indonesia’s Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 21-15, 21-6 in another match and will face Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion Macau here Friday.
Prannoy showed tremendous tenacity as he bounced back from a game down to win the match. Qiao dominated the opening game, jumping to an 11-3 lead from 4-3 and closed out the game without much ado.
Jolted by the first game loss, Prannoy scripted a brilliant turnaround in the second game where he led from the start and slowly crafted his return to the match by winning it. He continued his domination early on in the decider, opening up a 6-0 lead and then again from 17-all he broke away to win the game and the match.