HS Prannoy Through to Indonesia Open Semi-final Past Rasmus Gemke

Indian badminton star HS Prannoy defeated Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament in Jakarta on Friday.

The 29-year-old from Kerala, who is desperately looking to break his five-year title drought, defeated his 25-year-old opponent 21-14, 21-12 in 40 minutes.

Going into the tie, both players had two victories each in their last two head-to-head meetings.

It was H.S Prannoy, 23rd in the world badminton rankings, who dominated the early exchanges against his Danish opponent, whose mobility seemed to have been limited by an injury.

The Indian began with six back-to-back points before Gemke, the world No. 13, could register himself on the scoreboard. The Dane produced some eye-catching shots in the second half of the opening game but the early momentum was enough to see Prannoy through.

Gemke, who had upset world No. 2 Kento Momota in the opening round of the Indonesia Open, put on a much-improved display early in the second game but Prannoy continued to work his angles well to keep his nose ahead.

With the Dane fading away from the match after the break, Prannoy wrapped up the affair in 40 minutes after taking the final eight points on a trot. The Indian never lost his lead throughout the contest.

Prannoy, one of the heroes of India’s epic Thomas Cup triumph, had defeated Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus 21-11 21-18 in a second-round match that lasted 41 minutes and will next face China’s Jun Peng Zhao for a place in the final.

Axelsen vs Ginting in other Semis

Meanwhile, top seed Viktor Axelsen advanced to the semi-final of the Indonesia Open after beating Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in a thrilling match held at the Istora Senayan sporting arena in Jakarta on Friday.

The badminton world number one overcame a fast start from Ginting to claim the first game 21-13.

Cheered on by the home crowd, Ginting stormed back to clinch the second game 21-19 to force a decider.

But the Tokyo Olympic champion dominated the third game, winning 21-9 to secure a place in the semis.

In the semis, Axelsen will face Malaysia’s rising star Lee Zii Jia, who beat Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew 21-18, 16-21, 22-20.

In the women’s singles, world number two Tai Tzu Ying breezed through to the semi-finals after beating Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.

The Taiwanese’s ace sealed her place in the top four after outplaying Kjaersfeldt 21-13, 21-13 to set up a match against Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei.

Chen booked her place in the semis after defeating Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara 21-16, 21-10.

Last year’s Indonesia Open women’s singles champion An Se Young bowed out of the tournament after she was beaten by China’s He Bing Jiao 15-21, 21-17, 21-14.

Lone Indian Left

On Thursday, Sameer Verma ended his campaign with a 10-21 13-21 loss to world number five Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the second round. This was Sameer’s fifth loss to Lee in seven meetings.

Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also bowed out of the tournament after losing 16-21 13-21 to top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in women’s doubles competition. The men’s doubles pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also went down 19-21 15-21 to China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.

Other Indian top players PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth had suffered first-round defeats.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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