BWF World Championships: HS Prannoy stuns 2nd seed Kento Momota to set up Round of 16 clash vs Lakshya Sen

HS Prannoy (on right) after beating Momota. (Source: Twitter)

India's HS Prannoy stunned second seed Kento Momota in straight games to record a sensational win while reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen also sailed into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships on Wednesday. Unseeded Prannoy rose above expectations to shut the door on crowd favourite and two-time former world champion Momota 21-17 21-16 in a second round tie.

Incidentally, it was Prannoy's first win over Momota in eight matches. In their previous clashes, the Indian won only one game against his higher-rated Japanese rival.

Earlier in he day, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen sailed into the pre-quarterfinals with a straight game win over Spain's Luis Penalver.

Prannoy you beauty!
H.S Prannoy knocks OUT 2 time World Champion Kento Momota 21-17, 21-16 in 2nd round of World Championships.
_ Its maiden win for Prannoy against World no. 2 shuttler in their 9 meetings. #BWFWorldChampionships2022 pic.twitter.com/pJxrz81sYA

— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) August 24, 2022

The young Indian badminton ace Sen won his second round contest 21-17 21-10, taking 72 minutes to complete the formality.

Prannoy and Sen will face each other in an all-Indian last 16 clash on Thursday. However, last edition's runner-up Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of after a straight game defeat to world number 32 Zhao Jun Peng.

Srikanth went down against his Chinese counterpart 18-21, 17-21 in a match lasting only 34 minutes. The 29-year-old was out of sorts in the opening game as it took only 12 minutes for Zhao to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Indian, already on the back foot, tried to up the ante in the second game and led 16-14 but too many unforced errors helped Zhao secure the victory. The young Indian badminton ace Sen won his second round contest 21-17 21-10, taking 72 minutes to complete the formality.

After trailing 3-4, the ninth seeded Sen grabbed a six-point lead to be 13-7. The Indian continued to stay ahead before comfortably wrapping up the first game. Sen, a world championship bronze medallist, then maintained his stranglehold over the Spanish shuttler and won the second game by a bigger margin.

In the second game, the first six points were shared between the two players, but the 21-year-old Indian pulled ahead riding on his superior play. Enjoying a massive nine-point lead at one stage of the second game, it was only a matter of time before Sen completed the job.

Earlier, the Indian men's doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila moved to the pre-quarterfinals but Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy made a second round exit from the prestigious tournament.

- With PTI inputs