Badminton worlds: Prannoy stuns higher-ranked Angus in first round
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HS Prannoy stunned World No. 9 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong in three games and advanced to the men's singles second round in the BWF World Champions here on Monday as three Indian doubles pairs crashed out on the second day of competitions.
Prannoy, ranked 32nd in the world rankings, came back after losing the first game to win the next two games as he won the match 13-21, 21-18, 21-19.
The men's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila too advanced to the next round they defeated Daniel Lungaard and Mathias Thyrri 21-18, 21-17 to advance to the next round.
In other matches, the mixed doubles pair of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan lost to Mathias Thyari and Mai Surrow 21-8, 21-4; the men's doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla went down to China's Ou Xuan Yi and Zhang Nan 21-15, 21-14 while the mixed doubles pair of Utkarsh Anand and Karishma Wadekar lost to the German combine of Patrick Scheiel and Franziska Volkmann 22-20, 21-16.
The day, however, belonged to Prannoy, who joined former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth in the second round, as he came up with a superb performance to oust the eighth seed from Hong Kong.
In the first game, the 29-year-old Prannoy conceded an early lead as he took time to find his rhythm. Angus opened a 5-3 lead and slowly extended it to 10-7. Prannoy cut it down to 11-9 but the eighth-seeded player went from strength to strength to win the game 21-13.
The second game saw a total turnaround as Prannoy jumped to an early lead and a 7-0 lead before Angus, 27. Prannoy built on it to surge 15-4 ahead but the Hong Kong player launched a fightback and closed down the score to 20-18 before the Indian player wrapped up the game 21-18 on his seventh game point.
The decider was a close game as the players went neck and neck 7-7 before Angus opened a 12-8 lead. Prannoy fought back bravely and caught up with his rival at 14-all and then went ahead 16-14. But the Hong Kong player was not done with and caught up with Pranoy at 17-17 before the Indian shuttler wrapped up the game and match at 21-19, emerging winner in just over one hour.
IN the third round, Prannoy will now meet Liew Daren of Malaysia, who defeated Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-14,21-14 in the first round.
