- S. Prannoy, encouraged by an enthusiastic audience, overcame a tough first set against Wang Tzu Wei’s quick play to advance to his first-ever India Open badminton semifinal. Prannoy overcame a 5-10 disadvantage to tie the score at 14, jumped ahead at 17–16, and converted a second match-point to win 21–17, 17–21, and 21–19 in 77 minutes in a tight third game.
In the semifinals, the eighth seed will now play Shi Yuqi, a sixth seed from China. In the final match of the day, fifth-seeded Danish opponents Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen were soundly defeated by Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, 21-7, 21-10. The second seeds undoubtedly benefited from having Mathias Boe, the former doubles specialist from Denmark, on their side.
The Indians had only defeated the Danes three times in their previous nine meetings. The Indian duo is the new favourites for the trophy after the World No. 1 Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Cheng were eliminated late last night after playing their Thai opponents.
In a game where there were plenty of dribbles and flicks at the net, Prannoy showed off his ability to make shots.
In the first game, he settled into a rhythm and extended his advantage from 10-3 to 18-5 before giving Wang six consecutive points that gave her more self-assurance. Even though Prannoy swiftly ended the match, Wang appeared to have resolved a couple of his issues. Wang was more in control of the tempo in the second game. He made some extremely strong smashes on both flanks and raced up 13-6 after scoring six points in a row. Relentless, Prannoy recovered to win seven of the following eight points, bringing the score to 16–17, but he dropped the final five points to force another decider.