HS Prannoy on a quest for further glory

Watching HS Prannoy in action against Kunlavut Vitidsarn on Saturday was equally delightful and frustrating for an Indian badminton fan He was the lone Indian remaining in the competition looking to display a fearless brand of badminton against the best in business in his quest for a podium finishIt was the World Championships semifinals and at stake was a spot in the final to decide who was best as the 31yearold from Kerala ensured Vitidsarn wouldnrsquot have his rightful place in the summit clash coming easily And yet he surrendered to the 22yearolds impressive defensive skillsVitidsarn a threetime former world junior champion clinched a victory with scores of 2118 1321 1421 This achievement secured him a spot in his second consecutive final On the other hand Prannoys journey culminated in a welldeserved bronze medal at this esteemed event Notably this medal marked Indias 14th medal at the World Championships including one gold four silvers and nine bronze medalsAlso Read Prannoy is put to the test when pitted against the bestFor me this bronze medal means so much personally because it has been almost 12 years in the circuit you always want to have those big medals in your hand Yes you are disappointed for not getting the gold but the first starting step is with bronzerdquo Prannoy told PTIHe further added A lot of people have done a lot of hard work in the last few years and a lot of things came in place this week Thanks to all of them who have been working day and night with me so that I can play better and my entire family backing me from home It is not easy because you are in the circuit the entire year and hardly get time for family and friends sometimes it takes a load So these kinds of sweet memories are always good you feel motivated to go back and work otherwise it is really tough to do the whole thingPrannoy became only the fifth Indian mens singles player to win a World Championships medal Other medallists in menrsquos singles include Kidambi Srikanth silver Lakshya Sen bronze B Sai Praneeth bronze and Prakash Padukone bronze Twotime Olympic medalist PV Sindhu won five alone and Saina Nehwal bagged two medals while the womens doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa clinched a bronze in 2011 and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won a bronze last yearThis was somewhat of an interesting tournament for Prannoy He boasted of longer rallies with the right execution of shots with all his matches leading up to the muchanticipated semifinal going the distance He unleashed perfect shots as he tamed Indonesiarsquos Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo to set up a clash with 2021 champion Loh Kean Yew Prannoy was in fine touch as he read Loh well and used his array of shots to set up the points proving to be too strong for the Singaporean Last Friday he knocked out Olympic gold medallist and defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark to confirm a medalViktor is somebody who has maintained a routine consistently and you have to give it to him for conditioning his body to the maximum fitness day in and day out Im happy with what I have done Last two years I have put in a lot of hard work which is kind of coming into the game now My experience is helping me now so I can play different kinds of games against different players Im able to understand the change and adapt to itrdquo he explainedWhat about his future plans Badminton is a much more explosive sport There are lots of technical aspects one needs the entire body to play at the highest level so it is tough to maintain that speed of the game when you are 35 or 36 There are a lot more young players coming and the room for error is less If you lose speed you cant play at the highest level he repliedPrannoy has ticked nearly every box there in this season He bagged the Malaysian Masters title and finished runnerup at the Australian Open apart from one semifinal and three quarterfinal finishesLabelled as a lsquogiant killerrsquo for a long time the World No 9 unlike other compatriots had no big title or medal in his cabinet He was a force to be reckoned with back in 2017 when a younger Prannoy would dominate the proceedings against the likes of Taufik Hidayat Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan Sadly enough a battle with injuries and health issues affected his game as was evident when he was ranked lowly 33 in 2021 However he turned it around at the back end of that year winning one tournament after the other He then returned to the top 10 in late 2022 before attaining a careerbest ranking of World Number 7 this yearI have been good at pushing myself in training and also backing off when I am not feeling good Off the court I have been training for the last 2 to 3 years with Rohan George Mathew my strength and conditioning coach So it is about understanding the body hence it is a mix of all these things which has reflected in good improvement in the game he said The consequence of the World Championships bronze is expected to be a promotion when the rankings are out but Prannoy as always wants to remain focused on performances and not the results