World Championships: HS Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag Duo In Quarterfinals, Treesa-Gayatri Bow Out

HS Prannoy showed nerves of steel, advancing to his third successive quarterfinals at the World Championships with a fighting three-game win over former champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in Copenhagen on Thursday. World number 9 Prannoy, who won the Malaysia Masters and finished runner-up at Australian Open this season, once again displayed his sterling fighting qualities during his 21-18 15-21 21-19 win over the seventh seeded Loh at the Royal Arena. The 31-year-old from Kerala will face the winner of the match between world number one Viktor Axelsen and Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen in the last eight.

The world number two pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, which had claimed a maiden bronze in the last edition, also stood one step away from another World Championships medal after reaching the last 8 in men's doubles.

The duo bounced back from a mid-game slump to outwit Indonesia's Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin, ranked 10th, 21-15 19-21 21-9 in the round of 16 match that lasted over an hour.

The Commonwealth Games champions, who won four titles this season, will meet 11th seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen from Denmark next.

The Indian duo has lost five times to the Danish pair, including the last meeting at the World Tour Finals in 2021. Earlier, the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who reached the semifinals of the All England Championships in the last two editions, couldn't sustain the attack and went down 14-21 9-21 in 42 minutes against top seeded Chinese duo of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan.

In one of the best matches of the tournament so far, Prannoy and Loh fought like gladiators but it was the Indian who refused to give up in the end. After a