New Delhi, In an enthralling all-Indian second round face-off, Sai Praneeth edged fifth seed Sameer Verma to enter the quarter-finals of the India Open 2019, a BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament, here on Thursday.
The marathon 18-21, 21-16, 21-15 win that took Praneeth 71 minutes to complete had the World No. 20 lying on the court in relief after converting the match point.
This was Praneeth’s second consecutive victory over the World No. 15, just a week after getting the better of him at the Swiss Open, where he made it to the final.
Sai could have to face another Indian in the last eight, provided third seed Kidambi Srikanth beats Lu Guangzu.
Parupalli Kashyap made short work of world No. 58 Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-11, 21-13 in just 37 minutes to secure his quarter-final berth. The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist ran away to 14-8 in the first game and continued the momentum in the second game to build an 11-3 lead.
Subhankar Dey failed to repeat his first round heroics and succumbed to a 16-21, 13-21 defeat to world No. 32 Wang Tzu Wei.
Rising star Riya Mookerjee’s brave run, however, came to an end at the hands of eighth seed Mia Blichfeldt 8-21, 21-17, 13-21.
In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy put up a courageous display before losing 21-19, 19-21, 14-21 to the fourth seeds Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.
