Kuala Lumpur: India’s campaign in the Malaysia Masters 2022 ended on a disappointing note when its lone representative H.S Prannoy went out despite winning the first game in the men’s singles semifinal, here on Saturday.
Prannoy went down to Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong after winning the first game, losing 21-17, 9-21, 17-21 in a 64-minute encounter here.
The Indian shuttler, ranked 19th, won the first game easily, taking lead from 3-3 to 6-3 up and then maintained an upper hand winning five points at one stretch to take the lead. He maintained his 2-3 points advantage throughout.
However, Angus Ng Ka Long turned the tables in the second game, after Prannoy caught up with him at 5-5 from 2-5 down. The Hong Kong player won seven consecutive points to go 12-5 up and though Prannoy tried to make a comeback but his rival from Hong Kong maintained his lead throughout and won the match on the first game point to take the match into the decider.
The Prannoy took an early lead in the decider going ahead from 3-3 to open an 8-4 lead. But Angus Ng Ka Long fought back strongly and tied scores at 9-9 when Prannoy hit a drop shot into the net and extended the lead to 9-13 winning nine of the 10 points at that juncture.
The 29-year-old Prannoy fought back but Agnus maintained his lead of a couple of points to go up 16-14. The two players swapped the next few points, as he kept an upper hand as they went to 16-18. Prannoy made a couple of errors as Agnus extended the lead to 20-17 before winning the first game point to win the game 21-17.
Prannoy’s defeat ended India’s campaign in the Malaysia Masters wihout a title as P.V Sindhu had lost in the women’s singles quarterfinals while the other players had crashed out in the earlier rounds.
–IANS