HS Prannoy easily defeated Fabian Roth of Germany 21-18, 21-12 in their badminton men’s singles group stage match of the Paris Olympics at Porte de la Chapelle Arena on Sunday.
The 32-year-old from Kerala, who was down with chikungunya for almost two weeks ahead of the Paris Games, gave a good display of fitness and showed his mettle during 45-minute Group K match.
“When you’re in the winning side of it, I think it feels great. Yes, it started off a little patchy. I think the atmosphere is electric out there. So to kind of suddenly get into that tournament mode is not easy,” said Prannoy after his match.
“I think I’ve seen a lot of players struggling out there in the first matches. Yeah, but happy that I could kind of push through that first game and wrap it up in straight sets.”
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He will next face Le Duc Phat of Vietnam on Wednesday in the second and final group match.
Prannoy was tested by the world No. 82 Roth, who engaged the Indian in some quality rallies. After an initial duel, Roth was up 14-11 at one stage but an alert Prannoy upped the pace to make it 19-17.
A sharp smash gave him two game points and he converted them after his opponent erred at the net.
Prannoy, who had won bronze medals at the World Championships and the Asian Games last year, looked more at ease in the second game as he found his range and constructed the rallies well to move to 7-3.
Prannoy’s net game, attacking shots and deft touch helped him to move to 16-11 in a jiffy. A backhand stroke handed the Indian eight match points and he sealed the affair after Roth sprayed a shot wide.
Earlier, PV Sindhu showed just why she is entitled to the tag of ‘national treasure’ in Indian sports as she chased a hsotric third consecutive medal at the Summer Games. She was all class in a resounding straight games win over Maldives’ Fathimath Abdul Razzaq in their opening women’s singles group stage match in Paris.
The gulf between the two players was evident as Sindhu took just 29 minutes to dispatch her lower-ranked opponent 21-9 21-6 in the Group M fixture.
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On Saturday, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had defeated Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar 21-17, 21-14 in men’s doubles as Lakshya Sen beat Kevin Cordon 21-8, 22-20 in men’s singles. Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto lost to Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in women’s doubles.
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