Jakarta: Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth entered the semifinals of Indonesian Open badminton championship Superseries event after beating higher ranked opponents.
Prannoy, who defeated world no. 1 Lee Chong Wei on Thursday, went on to beat reigning Olympics gold medallist Chen Long 21-18, 16-21, 21-19 in an hour and 15 minutes to enter the semi finals.
The 24-year-old needed three games to beat Chen Long. The Indian won the opening game and dropped the second, before clinching the third 21-18, 16-21, 21-19. Prannoy will play the winner of the Kazumasa Sakai-Rajiv Ouseph game in the semi final.
Kidambi Srikanth, the other Indian in the singles draw, also qualified for the last four, when he beat Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei 21-15, 21-14. It was a relatively easy outing for Srikanth as he dispatched Wang in just 37 minutes.
The former world no. 4 next faces second seed Son Wan Ho, who got the better of Chou Tien Chen, from South Korea in the other quarterfinal. Both the Indians are one match away from yet another all-Indian final after the Singapore Open witnessed Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth battling it out against each other for the title as Praneeth came out on top.
