{"id":186085,"date":"2023-11-21T12:26:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T12:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiansapidnews.com\/?p=186085"},"modified":"2023-11-21T12:26:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T12:26:13","slug":"china-masters-prannoy-satwik-chirag-enter-2nd-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiansapidnews.com\/sport\/china-masters-prannoy-satwik-chirag-enter-2nd-round\/","title":{"rendered":"China Masters: Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag enter 2nd round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy progressed to the second round of China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament with a straight game win over Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in Shenzhen on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old, who had missed a couple of tournaments due to a back injury, registered a 21-18, 22-20 win over the world number 12 Chen in the opening round, thus avenging the loss that he suffered last week in Japan.<\/p>\n

The Asian Games bronze medallist will face either Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu or Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen next.<\/p>\n

Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who are the reigning Asian Games gold medallists, comfortably prevailed 21-13, 21-10 over England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy to also make a good start.
The Commonwealth Games champions will meet Japan’s Akira Koga and Taichi Saito next.<\/p>\n

Aakarshi Kashyap, the only Indian challenger in women’s singles, found Zhang Yi Man of China too hot to handle, going down 12-21, 14-21 in 33 minutes.<\/p>\n

Prannoy, world no. 8, came into the match with a 4-7 head-to-head count but produced a gritty show to come up trumps against Chen.<\/p>\n

Lagging 6-9 at one stage, Prannoy turned the tables with four straight points to make it 12-10. Chen came close at 12-14 but the Indian didn’t give much of a chance to his rival to comfortably pocket the opening game.<\/p>\n

Chen tried to script a comeback and was 6-3 up early in the second game but a fighting Prannoy kept him on his toes, despite lagging for most part.<\/p>\n

The Indian had managed to eke out an 8-6 lead but Chen moved to 12-10 and kept his nose ahead till 18-16 when Prannoy surpassed him to shut the door on his opponent. <\/p>\n