HS Prannoy’s good run of form continued as he eased past compatriot and the ninth seed Lakshya Sen 17-21, 21-16, 21-17 to move his way to the quarter finals of the BWF world championship and is just one win away from a sure medal at Tokyo. Prannoy send shock waves in badminton world when he defeated second seed and home favourite Kento Momoto in straight games 21-17, 21-16. He also had a comfortable first round win against Luka Wraber of Austria 21-12, 21-11. He will now be up against a resurgent Zhao Jun Peng of China in the quarter finals.
The Chinese shuttler defeated last edition’s silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth in straight games 21-9, 21-17 before setting up a match with fifth seed from Malaysia Lee Zii Jia. The Malaysian came in the match as the overwhelming favourite but the Chinese athlete had other ideas and he stretched the match to three set and played valiantly to win 21-19, 11-21, 21-19.
Head to head
The two players just met once and the Chinese shuttler had an upper hand in that contest. It was the semi finals of the 2022 Indonesia Open where Prannoy lost 21-16, 21-15 to the Chinese.
What to expect
As far as the ranking goes, Prannoy is placed at 18th spot and Zhao is at the 23th position. Both the shuttlers defeated top shuttlers to reach the quarter final stage and it will be a crunch encounter between the two in-form players. Both the players had a marathon three game thriller in pre-quarter finals and it will only benefit the Chinese as he is more younger and more fitter of the two. If Prannoy can carry on his aggressive game in the quarter finals as well, he will keep Zhao at bay. However, Prannoy had a career with inconsistency and choked on various occasions and he will be hopeful that he forgets the past and continue his good run of form to assure himself a medal by reaching the semi-finals.
Live streaming information
Voot mobile application and official website will stream the match live in India while Sports 18 will broadcast the action live on your television set. We will be updating the streaming partner if the match is played on court 3 or court 4.
Start time
From 9:30 AM IST on 26 August 2022
