World Badminton Championship: ‘I wasn’t brave enough in lot of areas’, says HS Prannoy after thrilling Round of 16 win over Loh Kean Yew

Copenhagen (Denmark): India’s top-ranked shuttler HS Prannoy, who is on hunt for his maiden world championship medal, admitted that it was an intense match and he felt he was not brave enough in a lot of areas in the hard-fought battle against former world champion Loh Kean Yew in the third round of the BWF World Championships.Prannoy, the hero of India’s triumph in the Thomas Cup last year, defeated the 2021 champion from Singapore 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 in a hard-fought encounter on Thursday.

Speaking to BWF website after his grueling win, the ninth-seed Indian said he executed shots that are typically outside of his usual repertoire, which constituted the only difference in the game.

“I wasn’t brave enough in a lot of areas, but towards the end I convinced myself that it was okay to lose, but not okay to not try, so that’s why towards the end I played some shots that I usually don’t play, and that was probably the only difference,” said Prannoy.

“There’s a lot of talking with the coaches. They were asking me to do certain things but I wasn’t able to do those things. I was wondering what to do and I was getting frustrated because I wasn’t able to play the way they wanted me to play, and they were getting frustrated because I wasn’t able to execute those kinds of shots.

“It’s difficult out there to play those shots in a pressure match. But that’s where the coaches come into play, they give you the confidence to play, that it’s okay to lose,” he said.

Prannoy conceded an early lead in the first game before fighting back to level scores at 8-8. Loh took the lead again at 12-9 before the Indian shuttler equalised at 16-16 before surging to a 21-18 first-game win.The trend continued in the second game and though Prannoy caught up with Loh at 13-13, the Singapore shuttler quickly grabbed the remaining points to pocket the second game 21-15.

In the thrilling decider, Prannoy was holding a comfortable 11-4 before Loh launched comeback and reduced the gap to 11-10. The Singaporean won five consecutive points to take a 16-14 lead but Prannoy could not be denied as he caught up with his opponent at 19-19 and went on to win the game and match to seal a quarterfinals berth .

The emotions had tumbled out after Loh got six points in a row, pulling abreast after trailing 4-11 in the third. Prannoy said that he has been suppressing the emotions and felt the need to express them loudly in order to release the pressure mounting in his head.

“It was intense, it was emotional. Until 11-4 it was cool, then suddenly you could see Loh injecting a new gear and hitting those hard smashes, and it was really coming hard. Especially towards the end of the third game to hit those kinds of smashes, you don’t expect that. But that has been his strength always, he moves quick and always out there on top of the shuttle.

“Emotionally it was important to let go; I was holding back for sometime and it wasn’t helping me, so that’s why I had to shout it out, and somehow get rid of the pressure that was mounting in my head. Probably that’s why it was emotional at the end.

“I was getting nervous, to be honest. Had to let it go somewhere, that’s why there were so many emotions. That’s how it is in some games,” Prannoy said.

After roaring to thrilling win, Prannoy set up a quarterfinal clash with World no. 1 reigning Olympic and world champion Viktor Axelsen on Friday.

–IANS