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

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.

Japan
Open
2022:
Indian
shuttlers
in
action,
schedule,
results,
telecast
and
live
streaming
info

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.