HS Prannoy's second successive win over three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei was the highlight on a day when Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth also made the quarterfinals of Denmark Open Super Series Premier in Odense.
World No 8 Srikanth, who already has two super series titles at Indonesia and Australia to his name, defeated Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin 21-13, 8-21, 21-18, while Saina, who won a bronze at the Glasgow World Championship, prevailed over Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol 22-20 21-13 in the women's singles pre-quarterfinals.
Also through to the quarters were England's Rajiv Ouseph, Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent, Korea's Lee Hyun Il, and Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen.
In women's singles, top seed and world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying, Korean duo of Sung Ji Hyun and Kim Hyo Min, Japan's Sayaka Sato, China's Chen Yufei and Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon also reached the last eight.
Srikanth didn't have any problem dealing with Jeon as he cut the pace of the rallies and constructed his points, finishing often with a smash or half smash to lead 11-7.
Jeon left empty spaces which Srikanth exploited and kept accumulating points with his better net play and precise cross court smashes to close out the game without much ado.
In the second game, Jeon produced a better performance and helped by Srikanth's errors managed to lead 11-6 at the break before scripting his comeback, grabbing 10 of the next 12 points as Srikanth got buried in a heap of unforced errors.
The decider then had to be stopped after the first point due to some light issues and the match resumed after at least 45 minutes.
Srikanth dished out an aggressive game after resumption, zooming to a 11-4 lead at the break. The Indian extended the advantage to 18-10 but Jeon delayed the inevitable, making it 18-19. Finally a smash from Srikanth gave him the match point and he wrapped it up when Jeon hit the net.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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