It was a good day at the office for the Indian shuttlers as H. S. Prannoy and Sourabh Verma sailed through the quarter-finals of NZ open. The former beat the No. 10 seed Wei Nan of Hong Kong to book his last-8 berth. Whereas the latter beat Parupalli Kashyap, his team-mate from India. Let’s take a look as to how their respective matches spanned out.
Comfortable win for Prannoy:
The US Open champion from July continued his great form as he overcame the challenge of Wei Nan in straight sets 21-18, 21-19. Even though Wei seemed determined throughout the game, the No. 4 seed put up a dominating performance. Amidst the neck to neck fight, Prannoy kept his calm during the crucial points. Some sensible stroke play at the right time helped the Indian to inch closer towards the ultimate clash.
He will face the Lin Yu Hsien from Chinese Taipei in his quarter-final clash.
Hard fought match for Verma at NZ Open:
As expected, the clash of the Indians went down to the wire. Neither Sourabh nor Kashyap looked to give away. However, there has to be one winner in the game. Sourabh Verma was the one who had the last laugh this time around. He grabbed the match in three sets having a scoreline of 21-18, 13-21 and 21-16. With several Indian shuttlers marching on to the international arena, we will see more of such clashes in the near future.
Next up, Sourabh will lock horns with Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in their final-8 match-up at the NZ Open.
Meanwhile, Siril Verma had to face a defeat from the hands of Chia Hung Lu from Chinese Taipei in straight sets by 21-13, 21-14.
Here’s wishing both of them all the very best for their respective matches!