Prannoy wins Malaysia Masters title, breaks jinx

Kuala Lumpur: Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy ended a six-year long title drought with a three-game win over China’s Weng Hong Yang in a pulsating men’s singles finals at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament here on Sunday.

The 30-year-old Indian showed great composure and resolve during a 94-minute battle to notch a 21-19 13-21 21-18 victory against China’s world number 34 Weng Hong Yang, a 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist. The win helped him to claim his maiden BWF (Badminton World Federation) World Tour title and also the first singles crown of the year for India.

The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300 in order. One other category of tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points. The Super 500 is a Grade 2 (level 4) event in the BWF tournament ranking system.

Prannoy was instrumental in India’s epic Thomas Cup victory last year but an individual title has eluded him since the 2017 US Open Grand Prix Gold. The Kerala shuttler had come close to breaking his title drought when he reached the finals at Swiss Open last year and signed off at the semifinal stage in Malaysia and the Indonesia Super 1000. Prannoy has battled a series of injuries and health issues before turning his career around in the back end of 2021.

In the last two years, he has been the most consistent Indian player in the circuit and yet he was not able to weave it all together in a week to win a big title in the BWF World Tour events.

On Sunday, all his hard work paid off as the world number nine Prannoy finally broke the jinx, dishing out a superlative performance against the 23-year-old from China in a battle of attrition. This week, Prannoy gave ample display of his physical and mental fortitude as he outfoxed his opponents -- world number five Chou Tien Chen, All England champion Li Shi Feng and Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto -- in three games. Prannoy’s plan was simple: keep up a consistent attack, retrieve everything and wait for the opponents mistake. From 1-3 down, he drew parity at 5-5 after lunging forward to put the shuttle away from Weng.

The Chinese stepped ahead but two wide shots meant it was 7-7. A precise down-the-line smash brought the Indian back at 10-10 before Weng smashed on the net. Soon the duo moved to 16-16.

After the change of sides, Weng was 4-0 up after Prannoy went for a flashy return at the net and also hit long twice. A big smash followed by a backhand snap shot got Prannoy going as he moved to a 5-4 lead with a superb backhand block. In a game of fine margins, the duo tried to play tighter shots and Weng managed to grab an 11-9 cushion at the interval. Prannoy then hit an erroneous patch, finding the net and also missing the lines, and suddenly, it became 16-10 in favour of Weng. Soon Weng grabbed seven game points with a cross court return and converted with a precise return on the backline to force a decider.

In the third game, Weng held on to his momentum even as Prannoy kept snapping at his feet at 6-8. A net kill helped the Indian draw level at 8-8 before Weng ended an exciting rally with a smash. Another splendid rally ended with Prannoy producing another superlative shot at the net to bamboozle his opponent, as he went into the mid-game interval with a slender one-point lead.

After resumption, Prannoy unleashed his cross court smashes to move to 14-11. Weng produced a precise smash and then targeted his rival’s body twice to narrow it down to 13-14. Prannoy let out a loud cry after a cross court smash, opening up a 16-13 lead. Looking for precision, Prannoy however missed the lines a few times and another such long shot helped Weng to make it 18-18. Prannoy kept his nerves and responded with a smash, leaving Weng on the floor. Another magical smash, which just kissed the lines, gave Prannoy two championship points, and he converted it after his opponent hit wide. (PTI)