File photo of HS Prannoy
India's HS Prannoy registered a straight-game win over Daren Liew of Malaysia to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Badminton Championships here on Wednesday.
Prannoy beat his Malaysian opponent 21-7 21-17 in a men's singles second-round match that lasted 42 minutes.
He will play the winner of another second-round match between Luís Enrique Penalver of Spain and Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the pre-quarterfinals.
Prannoy joined two other Indians, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the showpiece tournament.
Prannoy faced little resistance from Liew in the first game. From 8-5, the Indian took eight straight points to zoom to 16-5 before pocketing it easily.
The second game was more competitive and the two players were levelled at 6-6. But from there, Prannoy never fell behind as he cruised to 16-11.
The Malaysian narrowed the gap but Prannoy was up 19-16 before pocketing the second game and the match.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also entered the pre-quarterfinals after a hard-fought 21-11 9-21 21-13 win over the Chinese pair of Liu Xuan Xuan and Xia Yu-Ting in a 51-minute second-round match.
In the men's doubles, however, the Indian pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to 11th seeded Russian pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 11-21 16-21 in a second-round match that lasted 41 minutes.
On Tuesday, defending champion PV Sindhu reached the women's singles pre-quarterfinals with an easy 21-7 21-9 win over Martina Repiska of Slovakia. Sindhu had got a first-round bye. She will face Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals.
