HS Prannoy prevailed in the all-Indian clash with Kidmabi Srikanth to join Lakshya Sen and the in-form men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the quarterfinals of the Japan Open Super 750 tournament on Thursday.
Sen, who won the Canada Open earlier this month, advanced to the quarters with a 21-14, 21-16 win over Kanta Tsuneyama while the match between compatriots, Prannoy fought from a game down to win 19-21, 21-9, 21-9.
Fresh from their triumph in the Korea Open, the Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj and Chirag too secured a dominant 21-17, 21-11 win over the Danish pair of Lasse Molhede and Jeppe Bay.
However, the women's doubles of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly suffered a narrow loss to Nami Matsuyama and Chiraru Shida. The Indians saved a bunch of match points but couldn't avoid a straight-games 21-23, 19-21 loss.
Japan Open draw: Satwik-Chirag look to continue winning streak, singles players aim to bounce back
Prannoy, the highest ranked Indian in men's singles and the eighth seeds here, faces top seed Viktor Axelsen in the quarterfinal. The Dane has a 6-2 record against the Indian.
Lakshya will take on another Japanese player, Koki Watanabe, who made the main draw as a reserve player. The two have only played each other on the junior circuit and have a 1-1 head-to-head. This is a good opportunity for Lakshya, who had fallen down the rankings earlier this year, as there are no seeds left in his section of the draw.
Satwik and Chirag, seeded third, will take on Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin in the quarters. The Indians have a 2-1 record against the Chinese Taipei pair, including the group stage of the Tokyo Olympics.
Earlier, PV Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap, Priyanshu Rajawat, and Mithun Manjunath had lost out in the first round.