Prannoy shocks Ponsana

India’s Prannoy H S shocked seventh seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Badminton Championship here on Wednesday.

Unseeded Prannoy had to sweat it out before scoring a 18-21, 21-13, 21-12 win in the second round.

On Tuesday, Prannoy registered a 18-21, 21-9, 21-12 win over Michael Lahnsteiner of Austria in the first round.

World number nine Parupalli Kashyap also cleared the first round hurdle.

Fifth seed Kashyap entered the second round with a comfortable 21-7, 21-19 victory over Hsuan Yi Hsueh of Chinese Taipei.

This was Kashyap’s second win in as many matches over the world No 75 Hsueh.

Two other Indians, Sourabh Varma and K Srikanth, bowed out in the first round.

World no 43, Varma conceded the initial advantage to lose 21-11, 18-21, 21-23 to Indonesian 14th seed Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka in little less than an hour. Srikanth also suffered a similar fate as he went down fighting to Danish fourth seed Jan O Jorgensen, 21-10, 17-21, 13-21.

Indian ace Saina Nehwal will open her campaign against Sashina Vignes Waran of France. Saina, struggling with a knee injury, had lost in the semifinals of the All England tournament last week. She is the defending champion in this tournament and is hoping to bounce back from her Birmingham defeat.