Prannoy stuns Lin Dan, Saina advances at Indonesia Open

H.S. Prannoy stunned Chinese legend Lin Dan to join Saina Nehwal in the second round of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open badminton championships here on Tuesday.

The Indian eighth seed Prannoy overcame two-time Olympic champion Dan 21-15, 9-21, 21-14 in 60 minutes in the opening round.

"Really happy with the win since I had couple of months off from the tournaments and to comeback to competition was great for me. Having a big win against Lin Dan also considering the conditions was pleasing, especially the way I played in the third game," world No.13 Prannoy, who has a 2-1 head-to-head record against the five-time world champion, said.

"Now I am looking forward to get on court day after in front of the biggest crowd here in Indonesia."

In the second round, the 25-year-old Prannoy will meet Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei, who defeated B. Sai Praneeth 21-10, 21-13 in 35 minutes.

Sameer Verma defeated Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 21-9, 12-21, 22-20 in an hour and nine minutes. In the next round, Sameer will run into Danish top seed Viktor Axelsen, who won Indonesian Jonatan Christie.

In another upset in the men's singles, Frenchman Brice Leverdez shocked Chinese fifth seed and 2016 Olympic champion Chen Long 17-21, 22-20, 21-19 in an hour and 26 minutes.

India's fourth seed Kidambi Srikanth will meet Kento Momota of Japan on Wednesday.

In the women's singles, Saina registered an easy 21-12, 21-12 vicotory over Indonesian Dinar Dyah Ayustine to set-up a clash against Chinese fifth seed Chen Yufei, who defeated Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya.

Third seed P.V. Sindhu will open her campaign against Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the teenaged men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost to Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 8-21, 15-21 in 30 minutes.

In another major upset of the day, Chinese Taipei's mens's doubles pair of Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng stunned Danish second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-13, 21-15.

India's men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will meet Chinese third seeds Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan.

India's women's doubles pair of J. Meghana and Poorvisha S. Ram fell to Indonesians Agatha Imanuela and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, who won 21-11, 21-18 in 32 minutes.

India's mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy will clash with Chinese fourth seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong.

--IANS

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