Japan Open 2019: PV Sindhu and Sai Praneeth enter quarter-finals; HS Prannoy ousted

PV Sindhu survived a scare to progress into the quarter-finals while Sai Praneeth had an easy win but it was the end of the road for HS Prannoy at the Japan Open in Tokyo on Thursday. In doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fought hard to make it to the last-eight.

A week after being stretched to three games by Aya Ohori, the World No. 5 Sindhu once again dropped a game against the 20th ranked Japanese only to emerge an 11-21, 21-10, 21-13 winner in 61 minutes. The Indian needs to be at her sharpest for up next is the World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi, against whom she lost in the final of the Indonesia Open on Sunday.

World No. 23 Sai Praneeth caused a mini upset with his 21-13, 21-16 rout of World No. 17 Kanta Tsuneyama. This is the first quarter-final for Praneeth on the BWF Tour since the India Open in March. He will take on the 18th ranked Tommy Sugiarto for a place in the last-four.

A day after outlasting compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in a thriller, HS Prannoy failed to build on the big win and fell to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 9-21, 15-21.

The World No. 18 men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty brought delight to Indian fans by digging deep to see off the 16th ranked Chinese combination of Huang Kai Xiang and Liu Cheng 15-21, 21-11, 21-19 in a second round battle lasting 52 minutes.

They have an uphill task in the quarter-finals where they face the second seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan.

Satwik had mixed fortunes on Day 3 of this Super 750 tournament, however. He and Ashwini Ponnappa found the mixed doubles fourth seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai too strong and went down 16-21, 17-21.