Paris: Shuttler H.S. Prannoy stunned reigning Olympic champion Lin Dan of China while Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap also crossed the opening hurdle to enter the second round of the French Open Superseries at Stade Pierre de Coubertin on Wednesday.
Unseeded Prannoy rallied from a set down to beat his formidable third seeded rival 14-21, 21-11, 21-17 in a first round match that lasted one hour and 11 minutes at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin.
Top seed Saina tamed World No.14 Michelle Li of Canada 21-18, 21-13 in a 42-minute women’s singles match while eighth seed Kashyap saw off local shuttler Thomas Rouxel 21-11, 22-20 in a men’s singles contest.
Olympic bronze-medallist Saina will next take on the winner of the match between Germany’s Karin Schnaase and Japan’s Minatsu Mitani. Interestingly, Mitani had ended Saina’s run at the Denmark Open last week.
Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap will fight it out against the winner of the match between Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensom-boonsuk and England’s Rajiv Ouseph. However, it was curtains for World No.5 Kidambi Srikanth as he went down fighting to Tian Houwei 15-21, 21-13, 11-21 in a 63-minute match. This is Srikanth’s fourth loss to the World No.10 Chinese this season.
In the women’s singles match, Commonwealth Games champion Michelle made a robust start to her campaign, leading 7-3 early on but Saina soon reeled off six straight points to grab the lead.
The duo then battled for each point, moving neck and neck till 16-16 when Saina surged ahead to grab the opening game.
