Copenhagen
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.
