US Open Badminton | HS Prannoy, Sourabh Verma to meet in quarter-final

An Indian is assured to be in the semi-final of the US Open Badminton championships with the quarter-final of the ongoing US Open all set to be an All Indian affair with HS Prannoy and Sourabh Verma taking on each other with an aim of making it to the semi-finals.

Prannoy, who is seeded second in the tournament, defeated Korean shuttler Kwang Hee Heo 21-16, 18-21, 21-16 in the second round. Prannoy started well in the match and took the first game quite convincingly. Although the Korean showed some resistance in the second and took the game away, he failed to challenge in the decider which the Indian won 21-16.

Earlier, Verma was up against Indian youngster Lakshya Sen in a match which went on for 53 minutes. Like Prannoy, Verma too had a great start to his match and the first game was very comfortable for him to win and go ahead in the match. Sen, who had got the better of Parupalli Kashyap in the first round, came back strong in the second game and pushed the match into a decider. However, Sen was not able to pose any threat for Verma in the last game, and the senior among the both made it to the top eight by winning the match 21-11, 19-21, 21-12.