New Zealand Open: Prannoy bows out in quarterfinals

Bengaluru, May 3: India's campaign in the New Zealand Open Badminton Tournament's singles events came to a grinding halt after the loss of HS Prannoy to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama 21-17, 15-21, 14-21 in the quarterfinals.

Prannoy had stunned Indonesia's second seed Tommy Sugiarto 21-14, 21-12 en route to entering the last-eight stage.

But in the quarterfinal, Tsuneyama proved too good for him. Prannoy won the first game 21-17, but Tsuneyama fought back brilliantly to draw level in the second which he won 21-15

It all bolied down to the decider in which the fifth-seeded Tsuneyama kept his cool to emerge a 21-14 winner.

.#NewZealandOpenSuper300🏸

🇮🇳’s @PRANNOYHSPRI puts in a daunting effort to push 5th seed #KantaTsuneyama to the limits; won the first game but unfortunately succumbed in a close 17-21,21-15,21-14 encounter that lasted over an hour. Tough luck champ! 💪#IndiaontheRise pic.twitter.com/TuyvxIRBuS

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) May 3, 2019

With this India's campaign in the singles category of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 300 Series ended.

Earlier, B Sai Praneeth suffered a straight-game 12-21, 12-21 loss to the legendary Lin Dan of China in the pre-quarters while Saina Nehwal suffered a shocking first round loss to world number 212 Wang Zhiyi of China 16-21, 23-21, 4-21.

Lakshya Sen's campaign had also ended with a hard-fought loss against Taiwan's Wang Tzu Wei in the first round. Lakshya lost 21-15, 18-21.