Japan Open 2022: Indian challenge ends as HS Prannoy goes down fighting in quarterfinal

Osaka, September 2: Indian challenge at the Japan Open 2022 ended on Friday (September 2) after HS Prannoy went down fighting against fourth seeded Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei in the men's singles quarterfinal at the at the Maruzen Intec Arena Osaka in Osaka, Japan.

Prannoy lost to the Tien-chen by 17-21, 21-15, 20-22 in the quarterfinal match that last for an hour and 21 minutes. This was Prannoy's fifth loss in eight meetings with Tien-chen.

Prannoy, who had made incredible comebacks in the earlier rounds, did the same after going a game down to take the last 8 match to the decider, but several unforced errors helped the Chinese Taipei shuttler to seal the closely contest final game and the match.

With that loss, the 30-year-old Indian's run which included a straight games win over former world champion Loh Kean Yew in the pre-quarter finals of the tournament, came to an end.

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Prannoy was the lone Indian to reach the quarterfinal stage as most of the contingent, including Lakshya Sen and Saina Nehwal bowed out in the first round of the tournament. Former world number Kidambi Srikanth exited in the second round.

On Thursday (September 1), Srikanth, who had ousted Malaysian fifth seed Lee Zii Jia in the first round, crashed out following a straight games 10-21, 16-21 loss to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama in the second round match that lasted for 40 minutes.

Earlier on Wednesday (August 31), Sen and Nehwal made first round exits. While Sen lost the men's singles match 21-18, 14-21, 13-21 to Kenta Nishimoto of Japan, Nehwal lost in straight games to current World Champion Akane Yamaguchi by 9-21, 17-21 in women's singles.

All the doubles pairs, who represented India, including the rising Dhruv Kapila-MR Arjun men's doubles team and Treesa Jolly-Gayathri Gopichand women's doubles team also crashed out following defeats in the first round.