Badminton World Championship: Prannoy, Pranaav-Sikki in second round
Nanjing (China): India’s H.S.Prannoy advanced to the second round of the Badminton World Championship by thrashing New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota in straight games here on Monday.
Prannoy, seeded 11th in the tournament, hardly broke into sweat in cruising past the unseeded New Zealander 21-12, 21-11 in the match, that lasted 28 minutes. He will next take on Brazilian Ygor Coelho in the second round.
There was good news from the doubles shuttlers too, as the men’s duo of Manu Attri and B.Sumeeth Reddy and the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N.Sikki Reddy also advanced to the second round.
While Manu and Sumeeth defeated Bulgarian pair Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev 21-13, 21-18 in the 26-minute affair, the mixed doubles combo of Pranaav and Sikki comfortably went past the Czech Republic duo of Jakub Bitman and Alzbeta Basova 21-17, 21-15 in a 30-minute tie.
However, it was curtains for the women’s doubles pair of Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant, who lost their opening round clash 20-22, 14-21 to Turkey’s Bengisu Ercetin and Nazlican Inci in 34 minutes.
Among others, top seed and defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark enjoyed a comfortable 21-8, 21-7 win over Portugal’s Duarte Anjo, while third seed and reigning All England Champion Shi Yuqi of China beat Adam Mendrek of Czech Republic 21-13, 21-11 to proceed to the second round.
