Prannoy has had a couple of wins over the Chinese great in the past but lost their most recent encounter at the Australian Open this year. But on Day 2 of the World Championships, Prannoy looked determined to bring his best level.
Storming out of the blocks, the Kerala shuttler took the first game 21-11 riding on a barrage of attacking shots. However, his pace and intensity fell off in the second game which allowed the five-time winner to stage a comeback and pocket the game with a score of 21-13.
Prannoy was able to find his form once again in the decider and thoroughly outplayed his legendary opponent on his way to a 21-11, 13-21, 21-7 win in 1 hour 2 minutes.
The Indian has a tough challenge in his quest for a quarter-final berth for he faces the top seed and World No. 1 Kento Momota next.
Later, 16th seed Sai Praneeth too joined his Pullela Gopichand Academy mate in the Round of 16 courtesy of a comfortable 21-16, 21-15 win over Korea’s 39th ranked Lee Dong Keun. Sai next takes on sixth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the third round.
India also notched up a few doubles wins on Tuesday. The men’s doubles pairs of Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy and MR Arjun-Shlok Ramchandran both made it to the second round. While the former made short work of Frenchmen Thom Gicquel and Ronan Labar 21-13, 21-13, the latter prevailed over local pair of Tobias Kuenzi and Oliver Schaller 21-14, 21-16.
The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy got a walkover into Round 2 when the Chinese Taipei combine of Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun withdrew.
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