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HS Prannoy and men’s doubles pair MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila registered brilliant wins at the BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain on Monday.
Prannoy emerged as the star of the second day for the Indian contingent after shocking eighth seed Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong, China, 13-21, 21-18, 21-19.
Unseeded Prannoy did not have the best of starts but found his rhythm as the match progressed to a record come-from-behind win in 71 minutes. The former top-10 player displayed some of his old magical performances to notch up a morale-boosting win.
Prannoy breaks losing sequence to surprise Ng Ka Long Angus
The odds were heavy against Prannoy when he entered the court against higher-ranked Ng Ka Long Angus on Monday. The world No. 9 Hong Kong China player had a 4-1 head-to-head record against Prannoy including three straight wins before Monday’s match.
However, world No. 32 Prannoy came up with a spectacular performance to turn the tables on his opponent to avenge earlier defeats.
29-year-old Prannoy will lock horns with world No. 36 Daren Liew of Malaysia on Wednesday. Kerala player Prannoy has a 5-3 head-to-head record against the Malaysian star.
Former national champion Prannoy has won the last two encounters against Daren Liew, including a close 22-20, 21-19 victory last month at the Indonesian Masters.
Impressive win by MR Arjun - Dhruv Kapila
Another top performance came from young Indian men’s doubles duo MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila. World No. 41 MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila downed Daniel Lundgaard and Mathias Thyrri of Denmark 21-18, 21-17 in 44 minutes in the first round.
The fast-rising Indian pair Arjun and Dhruv did no damage to their ever growing reputation with a superb win over the world No. 45 pairing.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will take on eleventh seeds Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov of Russia, ranked 15 in the world. Arjun and Dhruv had lost to the experienced Russian pair at the Swiss Open 2021 in March this year.
The other three Indian doubles pairs in action crashed out without offering any fight to their respective opponents.
Indian Results (Round 1)
Men’s singles
HS Prannoy bt 8-Ng Ka Long Angus (Hong Kong China) 13-21, 21-18, 21-19 (71 minutes)
Men’s doubles
Arun George-Sanyam Shukla lost to Ou Xuan Yi-Zhang Nan (China) 15-21, 14-21 (32 minutes)
MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila bt Daniel Lundgaard-Mathias Thyrri (Denmark) 21-18, 21-17 (44 minutes)
Mixed doubles
Venkat Gaurav Prasad-Juhi Dewangan lost to Mathias Thyrri-Mai Surrow (Denmark) 8-21, 4-21 (21 minutes)
Utkarsh Arora-Karishma Wadkar lost to Patrick Scheiel-Franziska Volkmann (Germany) 20-22, 16-21 (36 minutes)
Indian players in action on Monday (Round 2)
Men’s singles
12-Kidambi Srikanth vs Li Shi Feng (China)
Lakshya Sen vs 15-Kenta Nishimoto (Japan)
Women’s singles
6-PV Sindhu vs Martina Repiska (Slovakia)
Men’s doubles
8-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty vs Lee Jhe-Huei-Yang Po-Hsuan (Chinese Taipei)
Mixed doubles
Saurabh Sharma-Anoushka Parikh vs 9-Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (Malaysia).
