Taipei Open 2023: HS Prannoy soars into quarterfinals

HS Prannoy (Pic: AFP)

Ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy registered a comfortable straight-game victory over Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto, thus making an entry into the quarterfinal of the Taipei Open here on Thursday.

Prannoy, currently the country's top-ranked men's singles player, defeated former World Championship bronze medallist Sugiarto 21-9 21-17 in 36 minutes.

The world number nine will play Hong Kong's fifth seed Angus Ng Ka Long in the last eight stage.

Prannoy has enjoyed a good run recently, having won Malaysia Masters Super 300 title last month. He also put up an impressive display at the Indonesia Open, making it to the semifinals, where he lost to world No.1 and eventual winner Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Prannoy is the lone Indian remaining in the competition.

On the other hand, former Commonwealth Games medallist Parupalli Kashyap went down 16-21 17-21 to local favourite Su Li Yang.

It was also the end of the road for the mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor who were handed a 13-21 18-21 defeat by Taipei's Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Lin Xiao Min.

Tanya Kamath also didn't pose any real threat as she went down 11-21 6-21 to World Championship and Olympic silver medallist Tai Tzu Ying.

The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, and Super 300 in order.

One other category of tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points. Each of these tournaments offers different ranking points and prize money.

(With PTI inputs)

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