Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy beat All England Championships finalist Shi Yu Qi of China to storm into the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament in Basel. World number 9 Prannoy continued his good run as he recovered from a second game slump to notch up a 21-17 19-21 21-17 win over Shi Yu Qi, who is a 2018 world championships silver medallist, in the men’s singles opening round.
Two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed PV Sindhu too made a positive start to her title defence, beating Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland 21-9 21-16 in a lop-sided opening round of women’s singles.
Prannoy will next face France’s Christo Popov, while Sindhu will take on 20-year-old Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani, who was part of the gold medal winning team of the 2022 Asia Team Championships.
Also in action on Thursday will be Kidambi Srikanth against Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu. National champion Mithun Manjunath takes on Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei and second seeded men’s pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will face Taiwanese pair of Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee.
