HS Prannoy loses to Jonatan Christie in Malaysia Open quarters, Indian challenge ends

HS Prannoy suffered a heartbreaking exit in the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Super 750 tournament on Friday, after losing to Indonesia's Jonatan Christie in straight games. With Prannoy's loss, India's challenge at Malaysia Open 2022 ended as PV Sindhu also crashed out in the quarterfinal stage earlier in the day. 

In the previous round, Prannoy had pulled off a huge upset by beating World No. 4 Chinese Taipei player Chou Tien-Chen in straight games, 21-15, 21-17 to enter the quarterfinals. However, there was to be no repeat of those heroics, as Christie dominated the one-sided contest. 

Playing on court 2, Prannoy lost the match 21-18, 21-16. Earlier, the ace shuttler had a dream run in the Indonesia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament, wherein he reached the semifinal stage, before crashing out at the hands of China's Zhao Jun Peng. 

End of campaign at #MalaysiaOpen2022.#MalaysiaOpenSuper750#Badminton pic.twitter.com/a0ZjJwtpDV

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 1, 2022

READ| Indonesia Open 2022: India's last hope HS Prannoy crashes out in semifinal

Earlier in the day, PV Sindhu also bowed out in the quarters after her loss against Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei. 

Sindhu squandered a game lead, and bowed out of the tournament on Friday, after a hard-fought defeat, which ended 13-21 21-15 21-13. 

The seventh seed Sindhu finished second best to the second seed Tai Tzu, a silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics. By virtue of the win, the Chinese Taipei shuttler extended her domination over the Indian ace, leading 16-5 on head-to-head record. Sindhu has now lost six matches on the trot against Tai Tzu.

With agency inputs