Jakarta: Badminton legend and six-time
Indonesian champion Taufik Hidayat was on Thursday decimated by
unfancied and unseeded Indian youngster B Sai Praneeth 15-21, 21-12,
21-17 in a grueling 52-minute first round contest at Indonesia Open
Super Series Premier here on Wednesday.
Having announced his retirement at the outset of the tournament,
the 'McEnroe of Badminton', who held the unique record of being the
World and Olympic champion at the same time, won the first game before
Praneeth, 20, made a rousing come back to shock the iconic player.
The world number 55 Indian will now face world number one and 2012
London Olympics silver medallist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, in the
pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
Meanwhile, three other Indians — Ajay Jayaram, RMV Gurusaidutt and
Sourabh Verma — also reached the pre-quarterfinals but it turned out to
be a bad day in office for world number 10 and top Indian shuttler
Parupalli Kashyap, who crashed out of the men's singles competition.
Meanwhile, Sourabh Varma stunned world No. 15, Hans-Kristian
Vittinghus of Denmark 19-21, 21-14, 21-15 to join RMV Gurusaidutt and
Ajay Jayaram in the pre-quarters.
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