India's star singles player HS Prannoy did not have it easy, but ultimately prevailed in his opening-round clash against Belgium's Julien Carraggi at Singapore Open. The Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist won in three games 21-9, 18-21, 21-9 to march into the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF 750 event. (More Badminton News)
Prannoy was quick off the blocks, surging to an 11-7 lead at the interval in Game 1 and then winning 11 out of his last 13 points to take the lead in emphatic fashion. But Carraggi bounced back in the second game, claiming six points in a row to go from 1-6 down to 7-6 up. The Belgian kept up the good work as Prannoy went off the boil a bit, and an 18-21 scoreline forced a decider.
But Prannoy returned on court to show that the second game was a mere aberration, winning Game 3 by a 21-9 margin, just like the first game to enter the second round. He will next face Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the round of 16.
Earlier, India's women's singles spearhead PV Sindhu registered a dominant win against world no. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark to book a round of 16 face-off with familiar adversary Carolina Marin. Sindhu won her opening round match 21-12, 22-20 to set up the tantalizing encounter against Rio Olympic champion Marin.
Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen fought valiantly against world number one Viktor Axelsen, but eventually came up short. The 22-year-old Indian took a game off his numero uno opponent before losing 13-21, 21-16, 13-21 in the first round.
Kidambi Srikanth's round of 32 match ended in an unfortunate manner as he retired due to what seemed like a knee issue. Srikanth was trailing 14-21, 3-11 against Japan's fifth seed Kodai Naraoka before he withdrew.
Elsewhere, India's mixed doubles pairing of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 18-21, 19-21 to Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie, while Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan went down 8-21, 8-21 against Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch in another match.
