BWF World Championships: Prannoy assures India’s medal, defeats world number-1 Viktor Axelsen
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BWF World Championships: H S Prannoy came out with all his energy to beat defending two-time champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in a quarter-final bout that lasted 68 minutes, here on Friday. world badminton championship India was assured of a medal. Prannoy defeated world number one Axelsen 13-21, 21-15, 21-16 in this thrilling match. After securing his first medal, he said, “Yes, finally I will have a World Championship medal.”
India’s 14th medal in World Championship confirmed
Axelsen was playing in front of his home crowd, so there was a lot of pressure on Prannoy. He said, ‘I thought that I can control myself. Wasn’t thinking of anything other than this. Only this was in mind that how to get the next five marks. Kerala’s 31-year-old Prannoy continued India’s golden performance in the World Championship, ensuring the country’s 14th medal. He has won the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament and finished runner-up in the Australian Open Super 500 this season.
#BWFWorldChampionships #Copenhagen2023
Remember when HS Prannoy came back from a game down to defeat Viktor Axelsen, the man who hadn’t dropped a game at the World Championships since the Tokyo edition last year, to reach SF?
That was quite something.pic.twitter.com/WkUJVMmwRB
— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) August 25, 2023
Sindhu has won maximum 5 medals
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu has won five medals in the World Championship for India, including the gold she got in 2019. Saina Nehwal won one silver and one bronze, Kidambi Srikanth won silver, Lakshya Sen, B Sai Praneeth and Prakash Padukone won bronze.
Satwik-Chirag lost in the quarterfinals
On the other hand, the Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost in straight games to Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skarup Rasmussen in the men’s doubles quarterfinals. The world number two Indian pair had won their first bronze medal in this competition last year. The Indian pair, however, could not match their attacking game against the 11th seeded local pair and lost 18-21, 19-21 in a 48-minute match. Earlier in the seven matches between the two pairs, the pair of Satwik and Chirag were successful in winning two matches. Both the pairs were facing each other for the first time after 2021.
The 2021 Badminton World Championship bronze medalist Danish pair prevented the Indian pair from gaining momentum from the start of the match. The Danish pair took a 5-1 lead at the start of the match. The Indian pair played the shuttle on the net on Astrup’s serve on several occasions. Astrup and Rasmussen extended their lead to 11-6. After this, the Indian pair made a comeback to make the score 15-18. After this, Chirag gave four game points to the Danish players by doing bad service. The Indian players defended two game points but missed the third.
In the second game too, once again similar situations were seen. There was no answer to the speed of Astrup and Rasmussen in front of the pair of Satwik and Chirag. The Indian pair was trailing 4-6 and 7-11 at the time of the interval. The Indian pair performed somewhat better. On the basis of Chirag’s brilliant smash and service, the pair equalized 15-15. On Astrup’s cross, Satwik hit the shuttle over the net, denying the Indians a chance to make a comeback after the Danish pair took the lead. The pair of Astrup and Rasmussen won two match points. It was successful in capitalizing on the second match point.
Prannoy had a 2-7 record against Axelsen before this match. Both players looked nervous in the beginning but Axelsen took a 5-2 lead. Pranay’s shot hit the net twice to increase the lead to 9-2. After this, Axelsen took a 16-11 lead with a smash on the crosscourt. He won the first game by taking the next point quickly. In the second game, Prannoy changed the pace of the rallies. His defense was also better but he was unable to finish, which gave Axelsen the lead.
Prannoy made a quick comeback to make the score 7-7. Prannoy took advantage of some poor returns from Axelsen. After the break, he made an 18-11 lead by showing a tremendous game. Axelsen’s shot went into the net and here Prannoy scored six game points to seal the game. In the deciding game too , the match was initially equal but Prannoy took an 11-6 lead at the break after Axelsen ‘s weak returns . Even after the break, his lead was maintained and he won this tough match by hitting some excellent shots.
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