Picture Credit: Twitter
Indian badminton star HS Prannoy started his 2025 campaign in the most bizarre way. Prannoy’s match at the Malaysia Open, including several others, was stopped and postponed due to a leaky roof. The matches that were scheduled at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur Court 3, came to a half after the roof started leaking plops of water. Prannoy’s game against Canada’s Brian Yang, also had to be stopped. In his opening match of the Super 1000 Malaysian Open, the Indian shuttler was leading his counterpart 21-12, 6-3. Apart from Court 2 witnessed similar scenes with wet patches, which led it to be closed for the day.
Prannoy later returned to the court after a stoppage of 2 hours and 45 minutes just to play for five more minutes before the roof started dripping water onto the court. By that time, the score tally read 21-12, 9-11 with Yang having taken the lead in the second set. While the Indian shuttler will continue the same match on Wednesday, the match was called off after 3 hours and 22 minutes of starting. The matches that featured Akarshi Kashyap and Anupama Upadhyaya were also postponed to Day 2.
Played for 25 min, took a break for 165 min: HS Prannoy takes dig at tournament management
The Indian shuttler took a dig at the tournament management by sharing a tweet. He wrote, “Played for 25 min, took a break for 165 min because of Rain (umbrella emoji) and then again played for 5 more minutes. Shall continue playing the same match tomorrow. Wowwwwwww.” On the other hand, the tournament saw a significant upset as fourth seed Viktor Axelsen, the reigning Olympic Champion was knocked out of the men’s singles first round.
Axelsen lost to World No. 27 Lee Cheuk Yiu in straight games, and was defeated 17-21, 13-21 in a 28-minute long battle. After the leakage issue, the BWF released a statement and said, "Li Shi Feng vs Priyanshu Rajawat, Pornpawee Chochuwong vs Anupama Upadhyaya, Aakarshi Kashyap vs Julie Dawall Jakobsen, and Rasmus Kjaer/Frederik Sogaard vs Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani’s matches will all be played on Day 2 of competition.”
