H S Prannoy stunned the legendary Lin Dan of China while compatriot Sameer Verma pipped Rasmus Gemke of Denmark to advance to the second round of the Indonesia Open badminton event on Tuesday.
World No. 13 Prannoy started off well against eighth-ranked Lin Dan, winning the first game 21-15. However, the Chinese shuttler came back strong to win the second 21-9 and level the match.Prannoy then dug deep into his reservoir to see off the iconic shuttler 21-14 at the USD 1,250,000 event. Prannoy had also got the better of Lin Dan at the 2015 French Open.
In other matches, Verma scraped past Gemke 21-9 12-21 22-20 in a match lasting little over an hour.
However, it was curtains for women’s doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram, who went down to the Indonesian pair of Agatha Imanuela and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 11-21 18-21.
Other Indians in the fray, Sai Praneeth and Saina Nehwal, are scheduled to play later on Tuesday.
