BWF World Championships: HS Prannoy’s dream of winning gold shattered, had to settle for bronze after losing in the semi-finals
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HS Prannoy BWF World Championships: indian star badminton player HS Pranay The dream of reaching the final of the World Badminton Championship was shattered. Prannoy was eliminated after losing to Thailand’s Kunlawat Witidsarn in the semi-finals played on Saturday (August 26). After this defeat, he had to be satisfied with the bronze medal. Kunlawat Vitidsarn defeated Prannoy 18-21, 21-13, 21-14 in a three-game match. However, Prannoy has managed to win a medal in the World Badminton Championship for the first time.
Prannoy won the first medal in the World Championship
The 31-year-old Prannoy squandered the opening game lead against the world number three. He raced to a 5-1 lead in the second game but the three-time former world junior champion rode on superior defense and attack to win 18-21 21-13 21-14 to enter his second consecutive final. Despite this defeat, it was a great achievement for Prannoy as he became the fifth Indian men’s singles player to win a World Championship medal. Kidambi Srikanth (silver), Lakshya Sen (bronze), B Sai Praneeth (bronze) and Prakash Padukone (bronze) have won medals in men’s singles. In this way India retained the record of winning at least one medal in the World Championships since 2011.
PV Sindhu in the World Championship won the most medals
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu has won five singles medals including one gold (2019). Saina Nehwal (silver and bronze) has won two medals while the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won a bronze in 2011. The pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the bronze medal in 2022. A day after defeating Olympic gold medalist and defending champion Viktor Axelsen, Prannoy failed to perform at his best.
Prannoy could not make it to the finals
Prannoy, who won the Malaysia Masters title, showed weak defense and could not show consistency during the 76-minute encounter. Prannoy, the Australian Open runner-up this season, had lost two tough games at the All England Championship last year and was aware of the Thai’s defensive strength and ability to come back. India’s top-ranked men’s singles player started well but fatigue showed in his game from the second game onwards, perhaps due to the three-game matches played in the last two days.
Prannoy started with his favorite straight smash but third seed Vitidasaran came back to make it 3-3 with two winners to level the score at 5-5. The Indian player took a lead of 9-5 by trying to increase the rally and mistakes of the opponent player. He was ahead 11-5 with another brilliant cross court smash. He controlled the rallies and took a 16-8 lead. Witidasaran took a ‘medical timeout’ to treat his knee injury and hit a net shot in return to give the Indian player the first game.
Prannoy trailing in the second game
In the second game, Prannoy’s shots showed a lot of speed, he followed a backhand smash with a cross court forehand to take a 4-0 lead. The Thai player reduced the gap from 4-5 to 5-5 with a few mistakes by Prannoy. But after this the poor performance of the Indian player started and he made many mistakes. His shots went wide several times. Prannoy tried to reduce the gap by scoring 12-15 but Vitidasaran soon took the lead at 18-13. Prannoy then handed Vitidasaran seven game points with a shot into the net and the Indian took the second game with a long shot.
Vitidsarn won easily in the third game
In the deciding game, Vitidasaran converted a 3-1 lead into 5-1 with three smashes. Prannoy was trying to be aggressive but was seen struggling in his length at the backline as the Thailand player was ahead 7-3. Prannoy’s jump smash and Vitidasaran’s long shot reduced the gap to 7-8. But Thailand’s player ensured a four-point lead till the break. Then with two net mistakes of Prannoy, he reached 14-8. Prannoy came back to score two points but Vitidasaran won the match comfortably after 19-13.
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