Ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy and the Asian Games gold winning pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the quarter-finals in their respective events at the China Masters badminton tournament here on Thursday.
World Championship bronze medallist Prannoy, the only surviving Indian in the men’s singles event, registered a comfortable 21-12, 21-18 win over Magnus Johannesen of Denmark in the pre-quarter final match that lasted exactly 40 minutes.
Prannoy, seeded eighth here, will now take on third-seeded Japanese Kodai Naraoka in the last eight round.
World No.5 duo Satwik and Chirag also kept the Indian flag flying by progressing to the quarter-finals of men’s doubles with 21-15, 21-16 win over Japanese duo of Akira Koga and Taichi Saito.
Prannoy raced to a 6-1 lead in the first game before the Dane reduced it to 8-6 and then to 14-11. But the Indian used all his experience to tire him out and pocket the first game. In the second game, both fought tooth and nail before Prannoy closed out the contest.
