BWF World Championships 2021: Prannoy, Ashwini-Sikki pair reach pre-quarters

Huelva (Spain), December 15: India's HS Prannoy and women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy reached the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Badminton Championships 2021 in Huelva, Spain on Wednesday (December 15).

Prannoy registered a straight games 21-7 21-17 win over Daren Liew of Malaysia in a men's singles second round match that lasted 42 minutes. The 29-year-old Indian will next play Denmark's Rasmus Gemke in the last 16.

Prannoy faced little resistance from Liew in the first game. From 8-5, the Indian took eight straight points to zoom to 16-5 before pocketing it easily.

The second game was more competitive and the two players were levelled at 6-6. But from there, Prannoy never fell behind as he cruised to 16-11.

The Malaysian narrowed the gap but Prannoy was up 19-16 before pocketing the second game and the match.

BWF World Championships: Indian medal winners in badminton’s marquee event

Prannoy joined two other Indians, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the showpiece tournament. Lakshya will next face Guatemala's Kevin Cordon, while Srikanth will meet China's Lu Guangzu.

The women's doubles pair of Ashwini and Sikki entered the pre-quarterfinals after a hard-fought 21-11 9-21 21-13 win over the Chinese pair of Liu Xuan Xuan and Xia Yu Ting in a 51-minute second round match.

The Indian women's pair will next face the winner of second round match between Russia's Alina Davletova & Ekaterina Malkova and the Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul & Rawinda Prajongjai.

In the men's doubles however, the Indian pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to 11th seeded Russian pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 11-21 16-21 in a second round match that lasted 41 minutes.

Badminton World Championships: Sindhu begins title defence in style; Srikanth, Lakshya prevail

On Tuesday (December 14), defending champion PV Sindhu reached the women's singles pre-quarterfinals with an easy 21-7 21-9 win over Martina Repiska of Slovakia. Sindhu had got a first-round bye. She will face Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals.

Also on Tuesday (December 14), men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Thailand pair Lee Jhe-Heui and Yang Po-Husan 27-25, 21-17 in a hard fought battle, which lasted 43 minutes.

The Indian pair will next face ninth seeded Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in the last 16 match.

(With PTI inputs)