Prannoy beats Ng Long, storms into Indonesia Open quarters

JAKARTA: HS Prannoy continued his rich vein of form as he stormed into the Indonesia Open Super 1000 quarter-finals with a straight-game win over Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus here on Thursday.

The World No.23 Prannoy, who is desperate to end his five-year title drought, dished out another impressive performance and outwitted Ng Long 21-11, 21-18 in a men’s singles second-round match that lasted 41 minutes. It was Prannoy’s fourth victory over Ng Long, who is ranked 12th in the world.

Meanwhile, Sameer Verma’s campaign came to an end in the second round following a 10-21, 13-21 defeat to World No.5 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia. In the women’s doubles Round-of-16, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down 16-21, 13-21 to the top-seeded Chinese combination of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan.

MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila bowed out in the men’s doubles last-16 as they suffered a 19-21, 15-21 defeat at the hands of China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.

In the men’s singles second-round contest, Prannoy dominated the early exchanges to race to a 11-3 lead at the breather.

But, the Indian was erratic immediately after the interval, which allowed the Hong Kong player to collect a few points. However, Prannoy was back in the zone and earned nine game points with a precise smash, sealing the opener when his rival hit the net.

RMV Gurusaidutt’s presence on the coach’s chair helped Prannoy as the former is on his first assignment with the India team post retirement. Ng Long gave a better account of himself in the second game, but Prannoy did well to keep his nose ahead at 9-7. The Indian had a two-point cushion at the break after the Hong Kong player went wide.

After extending his lead to 16-11, Prannoy secured four match points. He squandered two match points before converting the third with a booming smash.

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