Japan Masters 2023: HS Prannoy sails through to pre-quarters; Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat exit

Prannoy is the now lone Indian remaining in the competition.

India's top ranked men's singles shuttler HS Prannoy registered an opening round victory over Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yeu in three games (22-20, 19-21, 21-17) at the BWF Japan Masters 2023. With this win, he is the lone Indian to progress further with Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat making early exit.

Prannoy started positively with a huge seven-point advantage in the opening game (14-7). But things turned upside down as Lee scored seven successive points to level the scoreline at 14-14. Prannoy, the current Indian No. 1 in men's singles, made a small recovery to go three points further (18-15) and looked set to win the game easily. However, for the second time Lee crawled back to level scores at 19-all.

In the end, the Asian Games 2023 bronze medallist secured the opener (22-20) and went into the second game with a slight momentum. The Indian maintained advantage for majority of the second game and was ahead by four points at 17-13. Like the previous game, Lee pressed the accelerator to score four straight points and leveled scores and then a step forward to take the encounter to the decider.

Surprisingly, Prannoy wasn't able to finish off the match in straight games even after having healthy lead. In the decider, Lee held onto to a slender lead till the mid-break interval and the match was evenly poised at (11-10). Prannoy made use of his experience to halt Lee Cheuk Yeu in the latter stages of the decider and won the game with ease.

This win will help Prannoy stay in the hunt for qualification to BWF Tour Finals by a thin margin. Earlier in the day, Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat went down to Kodai Naraoka and Lin Chun-Yi in straight games.