People’s favourite HS Prannoy enters semis

Tribune News Service

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, January 19

It was a double delight for the home fans today in the India Open Super 750 as HS Prannoy and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won in

contrasting styles.

While Prannoy fended off a tough challenge from Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei in their quarterfinals match to win 21-11 17-21 21-18, Satwiksairaj and Shetty made short work of Danish duo of Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen in their 21-7 21-10 win to enter the semifinals.

It was a stroll for the Indian pair, but Prannoy leaned on crowd support to see off Wang. And it showed in how he thanked the crowd — the world No. 8 hit the shuttle, the one used in the match-winning rally, into the crowd as an acknowledgement of their support at the hardest of times.

Overcoming Wang

Midway through the third game, Prannoy looked down and out while trailing Wang 5-10. Seeing their star man struggling to mount a comeback, the crowd began to raise the roof with the chants of “HSP, HSP!”

It only revitalised Prannoy as he took the very next point with an overhead smash, and the comeback was well and truly on. Thereafter, he was a man possessed, catching up with Wang with four straight winners. Although Wang went into the lead at 11-9, he knew he had to win points to silence the crowd.

It worked for a bit as he led 14-11, but Prannoy went into overdrive with his aggressive hitting and levelled the scores at 14-14 with a jump smash.

Once back in the game, he never lost sight of the win. A smash followed giving him the lead, then a crosscourt winner sandwiched between two back-to-back smashes on either side of Wang’s body allowed him to clinch the match in 77 minutes.

“I think it was important for me to get that first game because he is somebody who gets going from the start. That is why it was a little bit more of a different start today, and definitely it helped,” the 31-year-old said.

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