Prannoy won the Malaysia Masters title

India’s HS Prannoy ended a six-year title drought by defeating China’s Weng Hong Yeng in three games in a hard-fought men’s singles final of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament, here on Sunday. The 30-year-old Indian showed great spirit during the 94-minute match to win 21-19 13-21 21-18 against world number 34 Wang of China. This is Prannoy’s first BWF (World Badminton Federation) World Tour title. Also, a player from India was successful in winning the first singles title this year.

The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, including the World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500 and 11 Super 300 tournaments. Another category tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100, also earns ranking points for players. The Super 500 is a grade two (fourth level) tournament in the BWF ranking system. Prannoy played a key role in India’s historic win at the Thomas Cup last year but had not won an individual title since the 2017 US Open Grand Prix Gold. The shuttler from Kerala came close to ending his title drought by reaching the final of the Swiss Open last year.

Apart from this, Prannoy was also successful in making it to the semi-finals of Malaysia and Indonesia Super 1000 tournaments. Prannoy has been in consistent form since the second half of 2021 after battling several injuries and health issues. Prannoy has been one of the most consistent performers among Indian players in the last two years but still failed to win a BWF World Tour title. World No. 9 Prannoy’s hard work paid off on Sunday when he pulled off a stunning display against the 23-year-old Chinese to clinch the title.

Prannoy put on a stellar performance this week, defeating world number five Chou Tien Chen, All England champion Li Shi Feng and Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto during his title win. Weng started the match well and took a 3-1 lead in the first game before Prannoy made it 5-5. Prannoy made it 10-10 with a powerful smash and took an 11-10 lead at the break when Weng fired a smash into the net. There was a tough fight between the two for each point. Meanwhile the score was tied at 16-16. Prannoy took two game points with an aggressive display. Weng saved a point but the next backhand shot hit the net as the Indian won the first game.

In the second game too, Weng took advantage of Prannoy’s poor start to take a 4-0 lead. Prannoy hit two shots outside while one hit the net. Prannoy tried to make a comeback but Weng went to the break to lead 11-9. The Indian then made a series of unforced errors which allowed Weng to lead 16-10 and then won the second game to make it 1-1. In the third and deciding game too, Weng started well and took an 8-6 lead but Prannoy leveled the score at 8-8. Prannoy was leading 11-10 at the break. Prannoy fired some good cross court smashes to lead 14-11 but Weng leveled it at 13-14. Prannoy once again grabbed a 16-13 lead with a powerful cross court smash but Weng once again fought back to level the scores at 18-18. Prannoy grabbed two championship points with two consecutive smashes. Weng then shot out to hand the title to Prannoy.

Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.

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