Prannoy’s excellent start with victory in India Open, Priyanshu ousts Lakshya
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India’s top player and eighth seed HS Prannoy started his campaign at the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament on Tuesday with a straight game win in a thrilling encounter while Priyanshu Rajawat made a strong comeback after losing the first game in the men’s singles to defeat his compatriot. Defeated Lakshya Sen and showed him the way out.
World Championship and Asian Games bronze medalist Prannoy defeated world number 13 Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei 21-6, 21-19 in 42 minutes. This is Prannoy’s sixth win in 13 matches against Tian Chen. In the next round, world number nine Prannoy will face Priyanshu, who after losing the first game, defeated former champion Lakshya 16-21, 21-16 21-13 in a match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
Against world number eight Prannoy, Tian Chen did not appear to be in any rhythm in the beginning. He made a lot of simple mistakes. He failed to adjust to the court and left the shuttle falling inside the court several times. Apart from this, the Chinese Taipei player also hit many shots on the net. Tian Chen had no answer to the speed and accurate shot of the Indian player.
“I was successful in implementing my plan well,” Prannoy said after the match. He was having a lot of trouble in the initial game and was not able to adjust to the court, which I took advantage of. Prannoy made a great start to the match and took advantage of Tian Chen’s mistakes at 2-1 to take a 10-1 lead with eight consecutive points. The Indian player was leading 11-2 at the break. Prannoy increased the lead to 13-2 and then extended it to 16-4.
The Indian player scored 14 game points at 20-6 and then came to the net to score points and win the first game easily. In the second game, Tian Chen won the first two points but Prannoy took four consecutive points to lead 4-2, including two from a cross-court smash. Even in the second game, however, Tian Chen continued to repeat the mistakes of the first game. Despite this, he was successful in giving a good fight to Pranay. He took a 7-6 lead with a cross-court smash and managed to take an 11-7 lead at the break with four consecutive points. After this, Prannoy entangled some shots at the net and hit some outside, due to which Tian Chen went ahead 14-8.
The Indian player made the score 11-14 with three consecutive points. Meanwhile, Prannoy regained the momentum at the right time and took the lead of 17-16 with six consecutive points on the score of 11-16. Prannoy got a match point at 20-19 and Tian Chen put the match in the hands of the Indian player with a shot at the net. On the other hand, there was a tough fight for every point from the beginning between former champion Lakshya ranked 19th and Priyanshu ranked 30th.
Playing against each other since their junior badminton days, these players were well aware of each other’s weaknesses and strengths. Lakshya, thanks to his experience at the international level, took the lead early on but Priyanshu managed to equalize again and again. Lakshya scored a lot of points with his powerful cross court smashes but Priyanshu also left no stone unturned to trouble him. Lakshya managed to lead by a slight margin of 11-10 till the break. Lakshya, who had lost in the first round of Malaysia Open last week, led 13-10 but Priyanshu went ahead 14-13 with four consecutive points.
Lakshya then displayed his powerful smash to take the lead 17-14 with four consecutive points and showed why he is rated among the top players in the international circuit. Priyanshu gave five game points to the target by hitting an outside shot at the score of 15-19. Priyanshu saved a game point but then hit a shot on the net, leaving him 0-1 down. Priyanshu looked more aggressive in the second game. They took a 3-0 lead. Lakshya looked helpless in front of his speed and was seen playing defensively.
Priyanshu scored four consecutive points at 5-3 to take the lead 9-3. He was leading 11-5 till the break and then maintained this lead to win the game 21-16 and make the score 1-1. In the third and deciding game, Priyanshu maintained his lead from the beginning and easily won the game to enter the second round. Lakshya said after the match, “I had a good start but failed to maintain the momentum. I made a lot of mistakes of which he took full advantage. In the third game he was in very good form and I kept falling behind.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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