India’s HS Prannoy and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, on Tuesday, made their way into the Round of 16 of the 2023 China Masters Super 750 tournament in Shenzhen, China.
While Rankireddy and Shetty registered a straight forward 21-13, 21-10 win over Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, Prannoy was made to work hard for his 21-18, 22-20 by Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Prannoy, who made a return to the World Tour circuit at the Japan Open after missing a few tournaments, had lost to Chen last week in the second round at Kumamoto.
The Indian, who trailed 4-7 in head to head encounters against Chen, started slowly as he slipped to 6-10 in the first game before opening up an 11-10 lead at the mid-game interval. Prannoy built on that momentum to pocket the opening game even as Chen kept fighting back.
The Chinese Taipei shuttler came out with vengeance the second game to open up an 6-3 lead before extending it to 12-10. Even as he trailed for a major part of the game, Prannoy ensured that he kept within a touching distance of his opponent, who squandered an 18-16 lead in the second game to crash out of the competition.
Prannoy will now face off against Demark’s Magnus Johannesen in the Round of 16.
Earlier in the day, Rankireddy and Shetty, who had lost their opening round contest last week in Japan, won in just 37 minutes against the experienced Lane and Vendy. They will now take on Akira Koga and Taichi Saito in the next round.
On the other hand, Aakarshi Kashyap was of no match to home favourite Zhang Yi Man as she lost 12-21, 14-21 to the Chinese shuttler to exit the tournament.
