HS Prannoy continued his giant-killing run at the Indonesia Open by defeating the reigning Olympic and World champion Chen Long 21-18, 16-21, 21-19 in the quarterfinals of the Superseries Premier event on Friday. The match lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
This is the first time that Prannoy has advanced to the semi-finals of a Superseries event. He will face Japan's Kazumasa Sakai in the semi-finals.
Earlier, Kidambi Srikanth advanced to his second successive Superseries semi-final with a 21-15, 21-14 win against Chinese Taipei's Tzu Wei Wang in a one-sided contest spanning 37 minutes.
World champion Chen was the first to serve and he looked comfortable from the outset as he opened up a 4-2 lead with a mixture of sturdy defence and powerful smashes. However, Prannoy fought back and won five points in a row to lead 7-4 as Chen struggled with the drift and pushed a couple of returns wide.
The 28-year-old Chinese player got both his challenges wrong as Prannoy led 11-7 at the changeover after a successful challenge gave him a six-point lead at 10-4. Prannoy, who climbed four places to 25th in the world rankings on Thursday, increased the lead to six points at 17-11 as Chen continued to be error-prone.
Prannoy had five game-point opportunities after a backhand lift down the line and won the first game 21-18 in 23 minutes after Chen hit a crosscourt smash long.
World No. 8 Chen got off to a slow start and committed a slew of errors in the second game as Prannoy led 6-4. Chen led 11-8 at the changeover after winning seven of the next nine points. He continued to lead for most of the second game as Prannoy misjudged a couple of shuttles from the back court. Chen won the second game 21-16 after converting his first game point as Prannoy netted a lift.
The third game was a cat-and-mouse affair as both players stayed level till 12-12 before Prannoy opened up a two-point lead at 17-15 after the longest rally of the match. Prannoy missed a down-the-line smash and Chen won the next two points to level scores.
Prannoy had a match point at 20-18 and won the contest on his second match point as Chen hit a backhand wide. The loss brought Chen's 10-match winning streak to an end on the international circuit. He had won the Badminton Asia Championships earlier this year.
This was Chen's first loss in four matches against Prannoy. Their last meeting came at the China Masters last year, where Chen won 21-10, 21-15. Prannoy had only won one game in his three previous matches against Chen. Prannoy's last appearance in the quarterfinal of a Superseries event came at the Singapore Open in 2015 where he lost to Kento Momota via a walkover.
Prannoy advanced to the last eight after defeating higher-ranked opponents in the first two rounds. He defeated Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the first round and six-time champion Lee Chong Wei in the second round.
Srikanth and Tzu had previously faced each other in the Chinese Taipei GP in 2015 where the Indian registered a win in straight games. This is Srikanth's best performance in the Indonesia Open Superseries Premier. His previous best in the tournament came in 2015 where he faced a second-round defeat.
Srikanth has now won both his matches against Tzu. In the semi-final, he'll face world No. 1 Son Wan Ho, who has won four of their six career meetings.
Son defeated Chou Tien Chen 21-15, 21-17 in the quarterfinals. He had earlier defeated B Sai Praneeth in the first round.
Srikanth had also reached the final of the Singapore Open -- which was the previous Superseries event -- where he lost to compatriot Praneeth. He's the only Indian man to win Superseries Premier, Superseries and Grand Prix Gold events. He had won the China Open in 2014 and the India Open in 2015. He also reached the quarterfinals at the Olympics last year.