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India’s HS Prannoy registered his name in the history books, as he stormed into the quarter-final of the Badminton World Championships, which are currently underway in Denmark. In a tense round of 16 matches, Prannoy emerged victorious against Singapore’s star shuttler Loh Kean Yew 21-18, 15-21, 21-19. Before the match, Prannoy was ranked at No.9 in the World, whereas Loh Kean Yew was just above him at No.7.
The first set was a well-fought battle between the two, as both players fought tooth and nail. At the mid-game interval, Prannoy had a deficit of 3 points. But he came back strongly with a series of smashes and levelled the score at 16-16. He took the lead at 19-16 and went on to seal the first set of the RO16 at 21-18.
In the second set, Prannoy looked a little exhausted and was 8-13 down, but he struck back strongly and grabbed five consecutive points to level the score. But he could not carry the momentum forward. Yew rushed ahead and earned a couple of points with amazing shots. The second set went to Yew, and the scores read 21-15.
Prannoy started off the scoring in the third set and celebrated by punching the air at the very first point. He got off to a great start, scoring the first four points, to which Yew looked clueless. Yew finally scored when Prannoy's smash hit the net, and the score read 1-4. At the end of 10 points, Prannoy had the upper hand, with the score reading 6-4. At the mid-game interval, the Indian had a commendable lead over the Singaporean, as the scores read 11-4. But the tides changed soon after, as the Singaporean played some unbelievable shots to take the lead, 15-14.
It was an exemplary comeback, and Yew celebrated wildly. The pressure seemed to be at its peak as the scores levelled at 17 in the deciding set. Prannoy then took a lead, but Yew pounced back soon and levelled the scores at 19 again. But Prannoy maintained his cool and took the game 21-19. He immediately rushed to his coach, Pullela Gopichand, and hugged him with joy.
With this amazing win, Prannoy qualified for the quarter-final, where he will now face World No. 1 Victor Axelsen from Denmark. Another pair of Indians has reached the quarter-final, in the names of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. The Men’s doubles pair defeated Carnando and Marthin of Indonesia 15-21, 21-19, 9-21 to seal a berth in the quarter-final.
