Harsheel Dani served another reminder of his prowess as he reeled off six points on the trot to put sixth seed H. S. Prannoy out of the $120 Syed Modi International badminton championship here on Thursday.
Left-handed Dani, a former National junior champion, won 21-18, 21-18 in 35 minutes for a place in the quarterfinals. In both games, Prannoy enjoyed leads but Dani kept coming back.
In the opening game, Dani bounced back from 10-12 to win seven points in succession and eventually snatched the game. In the second, Dani rallied from 15-18 to leave Prannoy, winner of all seven matches in the recent Premier Badminton League, stranded.
Earlier, in another upset, ninth seeded B. Sai Praneeth shocked fifth seeded Dane Anders Antonsen in straight games.
Among the ladies, surprises were provided by Rituparna Das, who knocked out eighth seeded Russian Ksenia Polikarpova and Gregoria Mariska who proved superior to her Indonesian compatriot Dinar Dyah Ayustine. Dinar won five out of the last six points to script the upset.
Pre-quarterfinal results (Indians unless stated, prefex indicates seeding):
Men: 11-Sourabh Varma bt Lakshya Sen 21-14, 21-16; 9-B. Sai Praneeth bt 5-Anders Antonsen (Den) 21-17, 21-19; 3-K. Srikanth bt Ansal Yadav 21-15, 21-16; 7-Zulfadli Zulkiffli (Mal) bt Misha Zilberman (Isr) 21-15, 21-5; 15-Harsheel Dani bt 6-H. S. Prannoy 21-18, 21-18; 12-Emil Holst (Den) bt Siddharth Pratap Singh 21-8, 21-11; 8-Sameer Verma bt 10-Wei Feng Chong (Mal) 21-15, 21-16; 2-Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (Den) bt Abhishek Yelegar 21-18, 21-5.
Women: 1-P. V. Sindhu bt Lalita Dahiya 21-7, 21-12; Vaidehi Choudhari bt Smit Toshniwal 21-13, 21-12; 4-Fitriani Fitriani (Ina) bt Ira Sharma 21-11, 21-7; Rituparna Das bt 8-Ksenia Polikarpova (Rus) 21-12, 21-19; Gregoria Mariska (Ina) bt 5-Dinar Dyah Ayustine (Ina) 12-21, 21-13, 21-17; 3-Beatriz Corrales (Esp) bt Debora Rumete Vehrenica (Ina) 21-13, 21-13; 6-Hanna Ramadini (Ina) bt Akarshi Kashyap 21-16, 21-12; Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli bt Mugdha Agrey 23-21, 21-19.
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