Indian Super Series: Prannoy stuns top seed Jorgensen, Saina, Srikanth reach QF

Rising Indian shuttler H S Prannoy scripted the biggest upset of the day at the Yonex Sunrise Indian Super Series, stunning top seed and World No.2 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark to enter the quarterfinals of the USD 275,000 event, here.

Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth also won their respective matches to make it to the last-eight stage.

But it was Prannoy's high-voltage encounter that saw some spectacular strokes, a contentious line call and India coach Pullela Gopichand losing his cool, even as the 22-year-old player came out with flying colours with a 18-21 21-14 21-14 win over the All England finalist at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

In the adjacent court, Saina Nehwal defeated birthday girl Ruthvika Shivani Gadde 21-16 21-17 but not after the national champion posed a few questions to the All England finalist, especially in the second game where she was leading 13-10 at one stage.

Later in the day, Srikanth saw off Japan's Kento Momota 21-12 15-21 21-15, while RMV Gurusaidutt prevailed over young Sameer Verma 18-21 21-19 21-18 in a hour's match.

Among other Indians in fray, Commonwealth games champion Parupalli Kashyap paid for his series of errors as he went down 17-21 11-21 to China's Xue Song in another pre-quarters match.

Indonesia Masters Prannoy, who had beaten Jorgensen in 2013 Japan Open, played a fast paced game and went neck-and-neck with Jorgensen 17-17 before the Dane marched ahead. The Indian was finding it difficult to counter Jorgensen's better forehand returns.

However, in the second game, the Indian fought back from 4-7 down to slowly distance himself for the German Open winner and eventually bounced back into the contest when the Dane hit wide.

With the crowd vociferously rooting for him, Prannoy changed his tactics in the decider. He caught hold the shuttles early and rode on his accurate strokeplay to lead 9-3 at one stage. Jorgensen, however, fought back to narrow the gap to 9-11 at the break.

After the break, Prannoy kept the pressure on the Dane and was leading 13-11 when a contentious line call brought the match to a halt. It was a return from the Indian which had caught Jorgensen off-guard but the shuttle was called in by the line umpire.

Prannoy immediately requested for a referral but he was denied by the chair umpire, who overruled the decision and awarded the point to Jorgensen. 

The line decision miffed Gopichand, who was following everything from the sidelines. He soon yelled: "Prannoy, don't play" and then walked up to the line umpire as the match came to a halt.

However, after a few minutes, Prannoy resumed the match despite getting a raw deal from the chair umpire and went on to win the match when Jorgensen's return got buried at the net.

"I didn't hear the chair umpire overruling the line umpire's call. It is very unlikely for him to overrule a line call on the other end. I protested aggressively because I saw a point there for Prannoy and I noticed the chief referee sitting just behind the linesman and I went to him so that he can intervene," Gopichand said later.

After the match, Prannoy explained: "The line umpire had given it right, chair umpire overruled it. I challenged it but he said it was late. I think I challenged at the right time but he didn't allow the challenge. I was really determined that I should not leave the match."

Jorgensen was clearly unhappy at Gopichand's outburst.

"What an aggressive match both by the coach and Prannoy. That was really not my style of game. That was really aggressive from the audience...That was not a good experience," the Dane said.

"I must say I didn't like the reaction from Gopichand. It was a bit too much in my opinion. That was too much. Not the way I want to play badminton," he said.

Prannoy had defeated Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia during the 2013 India Open.

World No. 17 Prannoy will take on sixth seed Viktor Alexsen of Denmark, while World No.4 Srikanth will be up against Japan's Takuma.

Meanwhile Olympic champion Lin Dan cruised into the quarterfinals with a 21-13, 21-16 win over Hu Yun of Hong Kong. Women's top seed Saina Nehwal got the better of birthday girl Ruthvika Shivani, who is also the current national champion. The world No. 2 beat the 18-year-old 21-16, 21-17.

World No.2 Saina will meet Hana Ramadhini of Indonesia in women's singles quarterfinals.

However, Commonwealth Gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap's campaign was halted by Xue Song of China, who won 21-17, 21-11. The lone Indian challenge in women's doubles also ended with the defeat of the spirited pair of Kuhoo Garg and Ningshi Hazarika, who lost to seventh seed Chinese pair Bao Yixin and Tang Jinhua 4-21, 6-21. PTI ATK FK

Important results (Indian unless mentioned):
 

Women's singles: Ratchanok Intanon (THA) bt Adrianti Firdarsari (INA) 21-16 21-12, Yui Hashimoto (JPN) bt Riya Pillai 21-6 21-14; Yip Pui Yin (HKG) bt Kim Hyo Min (KOR) 21-19 13-21 21-15, Hana Ramadhini (INA)bt Pai Yu Po (TPE) 21-18 16-21 21-15; Yao Xue (CHN) bt Minatsu Mitani (JPN) 21-15 21-10, Carolina Marin (ESP) bt Hsu Ya Ching (TPE) 21-16 21-13; Saina Nehwal bt Ruthvika Shivani 21-16, 21-17
Men's singles: Tommy Sugiarto (INA) bt Wei Nan (HKG) 21-12 21-13, Viktro Axelsen (DEN) bt Lin Yu Hsien (TPE) 21-10 21-12; Lin Dan (CHN) bt Hu Yun (HKG) 21-13 21-16 Takuma Ueda (JPN) Japan Wang Zhengming (CHN) 21-16, 21-19; Xue Song (CHN) bt P Kashyap 21-17 21-11 HS Prannoy bt Jorgensen (DEN) 18-21 21-14 21-14; K Srikanth bt Kento Momota (JPN) 21-12 15-21 21-15.
Women's Doubles: Bao Yixin /Tang Jinhua (CHN) bt Kuhoo Garg/N Hazarika 21-4, 21-6. PTI AT