Bali: After winning the 2021 Swiss Open (March 7, 2021), the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold (August 2, 2021), and the 2021 Denmark Open (Oct 24, 2021), Viktor Axelsen’s pursuit of his fourth individual title of the season ended on Thursday as he was upset by World No. 32 HS Prannoy of India, losing 21-14, 19-21, 16-21 in the second round of Indonesia Masters.
He praised Prannoy for his performance and promised to bounce back.
“Argh, not the best day at the office today. Did my best but wasn’t enough against a well playing Prannoy – Good luck moving forward! I will take a bit of rest now and try to get my body back to full power before the next two weeks. Head high and positives vibes 💪 Thanks for your support and talk soon. Viggo ”
Indonesia’s World No. 8 Jonatan Christie also suffered a second-round exit on Thursday after going down to Kidambi Srikanth of India 21-13, 18-21, 15-21.
Both Prannoy and Srikanth will face each other in the quarter-finals on Friday.
The World No. 1 Kento Momota continued his strong run at the tournament, beating Lakshya Sen of India 21-13, 21-19, and will fight Rasmus Gemke of Denmark for a spot in the semi-finals.
In men’s doubles, Indonesia’s second seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan were eliminated in the last 16 and they have immediately shifted their focus to the 2021 Indonesia Open which will kick off next Tuesday.
Ahsan/Setiawan a.k.a “the Daddies” crashed out in a three-game battle against the unseeded Japanese pair, Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi. The Daddies won the first game 21-11, then lost 15-21,12-21 in the next two.
“First, I want to say congratulations to the Japanese pair, because they have played quite well today. For us, we’ll keep our spirit high and cheer ourselves up,” said Mohammad Ahsan after the match.
“We will try again next week,” added Ahsan.
The Daddies will again face Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi in the first round of the 2021 Indonesia Open.
“We will put more focus on our physical fitness in the preparation for next week’s tournament. Hopefully, we can beat them next week,” said Hendra Setiawan.
Meanwhile, Malaysia has three men’s pairs made into the quarter-finals.
The No. 5 seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik overcame unseeded pair from Indonesia Panjer Aji Siloka Dadiara/Bryan Sidney Elohim 21-12, 21-8 and will play the Tokyo Olympics champions – Lee Yang/Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan next; while Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin and Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi will set up an all-Malaysian quarter-final battle in the last 8.
