Jakarta: Young Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth stunned former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia to storm into the pre-quarterfinals of the Indonesian Super Series Premier here on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Indian, who made it to the main draw through the qualifiers, came back from one game down as he won the remaining two in stunning fashion to shock the former world number one and 2004 Athens Olympics gold medallist 15-21, 21-12, 21-17 in the first round.
The world number 55 Indian, now runs into world number one and 2012 London Olympics silver medallist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
Three other Indians – Ajay Jayaram, RMV Gurusaidutt and Sourabh Verma – also reached the pre-quarters but it turned out to be a bad day for world number 10 Parupalli Kashyap as he crashed out of the men’s singles.
The 26-year-old Kashyap was completely outclassed by former world number six Sho Sasaki of Japan 7-21, 8-21 in his campaign opener.
While Jayaram struggled past world number 71 Riyanto Subagja of Indonesia 22-20, 8-21, 21-12 in a hard-fought battle, Gurusaidutt, ranked 25th, got the better off another local player Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 22-20, 21-16.
Jayaram will take on fourth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who had won the silver medal at the 2007 World Championship in Kuala Lumpur. Gurusaidutt will meet the winner of the match between seventh seed Dane Jan O Jorgensen and Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai.
Varma prevailed over Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark 19-21, 21-14, 21-15. He takes on third seed Chinese Pengyu Du in the pre-quarters.
In the women’s doubles, India’s pair of Pradnya Gadre and Ashwini Ponnappa beat Mingtian Fu and Lei Yao of Singapore 21-16, 15-21, 22-20. They now take on Indonesian duo of Anneke Feinya Agustin and Della Destiara Haris in the next round.
However, it was curtains for Aparna Balan and Siki Reddy as they suffered a 12-21, 17-21 defeat to local combo of Gebby Ristiyani Imawan and Tiara Rosalia Nuraidah in another women’s doubles first round match. (PTI)