Kuala Lumpur, Jan 13 () India’s No. 1 shuttler H.S. Prannoy on Friday bowed out of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament after suffering a quarterfinal loss at the hands of Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
Playing on court 2, World No. 8 Prannoy lost 16-21, 21-19, 10-21 to Naraoka here at the Axiata Arena. The unseeded Japanese will square off with No. 8 seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand for a spot in the last four.
Naraoka started the proceedings on a high note and took an early advantage with five back-to-back points. The Indian badminton player got his way back into the game and levelled it at 7-7. The Japanese shuttler maintained a slender lead throughout the game and in the end, comfortably pocketed the first game.
The second game witnessed an intense contest between both the players but it was the Indian who eventually emerged as the victor of the battle and took the match into a decider. Naraoka completely dominated the final game and hardly gave Prannoy a chance to claw his way back in and finally wrapped up the match in 84 minutes of play.
Heading into the match, the Japanese shuttler was leading 2-0 in the head-to-head stats against Parnnoy, having won both their meetings last year – Singapore Open and then at the World Tour Finals.
Later in the day, world championships bronze medallists men’s pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, ranked fifth in the world, will take on the Chinese pair of Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi in the men’s doubles quarterfinals.
bc/bsk
