Sai Praneeth stuns Hidayat

Jayaram, Gurusaidutt advance

Young Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth stunned former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia to storm into the pre-quarterfinals of the Indonesian Super Series Premier here on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old Indian, who made it to the main draw through the qualifiers, rallied to post a 15-21, 21-12, 21-17 win in the Indonesian’s final tournament. Ajay Jayaram and RMV Gurusaidutt also reached the pre-quarterfinals but Parupalli Kashyap crashed out.

The 26-year-old Kashyap was not in his elements and was completely outclassed by former world number six Sho Sasaki of Japan 7-21, 8-21.

World number 28 Jayaram and Gurusaidutt notched up contrasting victories.
While Jayaram struggled past world number 71 Riyanto Subagja of Indonesia 22-20, 8-21, 21-12 in a 49-minute hard-fought battle, Gurusaidutt, ranked 25th, got the better off another local player Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 22-20, 21-16.

Sourabh Verma also advanced, beating Hans-Kristien Vittinghus 19-21, 21-14, 21-15.
Jayaram will take on fourth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who had won the silver medal at the 2007 World Championship in Kuala Lumpur. Gurusaidutt will meet the winner of the match between seventh seed Dane Jan O Jorgensen and Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai.

In the women’s doubles, Pradnya Gadre and Ashwini Ponnappa knocked out Fu Mintian and Lei Yao of Singapore 21-16, 15-21, 22-20 while Aparna Balan and Siki Reddy N suffered a 12-21, 17-21 defeat to Gebby Ristiyani Imawan and Tiara Rosalia Nuraidah.

Jayaram found the going tough against Riyanto right from the start and was lagging 9-14 but the Indian slowly clawed back with five straight points and then reeled off four points on the trot to move to 19-15. Riyanto caught up at 20-20 but the Indian managed to pocket the first game by capturing the next two points.

In the second game, Riyanto showed his mettle and opened up a 5-1 lead and then held his fort to bounce back into the game rather comfortably.

However, in the decider, Jayaram got his act together and distanced himself from 4-4. The Indian started dominating the proceedings and knocked off six points on the trot to further consolidate his position and eventually seal the issue.