Indonesia Super Series: Srikanth, Prannoy through to the second round

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Internet Desk: Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy reached the second round of the men’s singles competition at the $1,000,000 Indonesia Super Series Premier on Wednesday.

Srikanth beat Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-15 17-21 21-16 in a 56-minute match. He is probably going to face fourth seeded Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen next.

Coming into the match with a 1-2 head-to-head record, Srikanth made sure he left after leveling the score of 1-2. The Indian gave his level best from the very beginning, before breaking off at 7-7 in the opening game.

In the second, Wong initiated the game at 7-3 lead and despite some harsh struggle from Srikanth, he had brought down the score to 16-18.  However, Wong soared back into the game pretty soon.

In the decider, Srikanth fought back from 6-8 and 11-13 down to reel off six straight points at 14-14 to eventually comfortably seal the match in his favour.

Earlier in the day, the world No. 29 Prannoy defeated 20th ranked Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-13 21-18 in a 43-minute battle. He will next face top seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei.

After back-to-back titles at Singapore and Thailand, B Sai Praneeth bowed out in the opening round following a 14-21 18-21 loss against second seeded Son Wan Ho of Korea in 40 minutes.

The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also suffered a 9-21 19-21 loss against Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

It was also curtains for Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy after the duo suffered a 21-19 19-21 13-21 loss to the Indonesia combo of Dian Fitriani and Nadya Melati.