BWF World Championships: HS Prannoy in pre-quarters after defeating Malysia's Daren Liew in straight sets

HS Prannoy of India advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Badminton Championships here on Wednesday with a straight-game victory over Malaysia's Daren Liew.

Prannoy defeated his Malaysian opponent 21-7 21-17 in a 42-minute men's singles second-round encounter.

In the pre-quarterfinals, he will face the winner of another second-round match between Luis Enrique Penalver of Spain and Rasmus Gemke of Denmark.

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Prannoy entered in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the showcase competition alongside two other Indians, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen.

Liew proved to be no match against Prannoy in the first game. The Indian grabbed eight straight points from 8-5 to 16-5 before easily pocketing it.

The second game was more evenly contested, with the two players tied at 6-6. Prannoy never trailed again after that, cruising to a 16-11 victory. The Malaysian closed the lead, but Prannoy took the second game and the match 19-16.

Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, the women's doubles duo, also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals following a hard-fought 21-11 9-21 21-13 triumph against the Chinese pair of Liu Xuan Xuan and Xia Yu Ting in a 51-minute second-round match.

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However, in the men's doubles, the Indian duo of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila were defeated 11-21 16-21 by the 11th seeded Russian pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov in a 41-minute second round encounter.

Defending champion PV Sindhu advanced to the women's singles pre-quarterfinals with an easy 21-7 21-9 win against Martina Repiska of Slovakia on Tuesday. Sindhu received a first-round bye. In the pre-quarterfinals, she will meet Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.