BWF World Championship: HS Prannoy advances to quarterfinals, Saina Nehwal crashes out

In the ongoing BWF World Championship, the Indian contingent had another mixed day on August 24. First up, HS Prannoy beat Lakshya Sen 17-21, 21-16, 21-17 to qualify for the quarterfinals. He will now face Zhao Jun Peng. On the other hand, Saina Nehwal lost to Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals by 17-21 21-16 13-21. With this win, Busanan extended her head-to-head record against her Indian counterpart by 5-3.

Speaking of the game, Busanan was leading the game by 11-3 at one stage. However, Saina bounced back and the score read 17-19. The Indian led the game by 11-7 in the second set but Busanan still managed to win the game. Talking about the double’s team, the pair of Dhruv Kapila-MR Arjun and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, meanwhile, moved into the quarterfinals.

The pair of Arjun and Kapil won their round of 16 clash against Terry Hee and Loh Kean Hean of Singapore by 18-21 21-15 21-16. Satwik and Chirag, on the other hand, went past the Danish pair of Jeppa Bay and Lasse Molhede by 21-12, 21-10. Arjun and Kapila will face the Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the last eight stage. On the other hand, Satwik and Chirag will take on Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan.

I feel this is our time: Arjun

After the game, Arjun said that he and Kapil were prepared for such a tight-clash such as this. He explained that they used different tactics compared to their last game.

“We feel good. As with every match, we were prepared for this one as well. We used different tactics compared to our last match because these guys are fast on the legs so we had to be extra ready. We had many nervous situations in the game but luckily we were able to get over them,” Arjun told BWF TV after the win.

“We’re looking to go all the way through because we’ve had many close matches with good pairs. I feel this is our time, when matches are falling on our side as well.”