Thailand Open: HS Prannoy braves injury to beat 6th seed Jonatan Christie in Round 1, Ashwini-Sikki lose
HS Prannoy braved an injury scare and saved match points in the decider to beat the Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie 18-21, 21-16, 23-21 in the Toyota Thailand Open.
In Short
- Prannoy fell to the ground while attempting to return a shot and felt a dislocation in his left shoulder
- A physio was called to take a look but to everyone’s surprise Prannoy continued to play
- He saved match points from that sitation and wrapped up the game by winning the decider
India’s HS Prannoy braved an injury scare and fought back brilliantly after being a set down to beat the Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie 18-21, 21-16, 23-21 in the first round of Toyota Thailand Open on Wednesday.
Prannoy saved two match points and had to be looked at by the physio when Indonesia’s Christie was 20-18 up in the decider, but bounced back to save the points and eventually took the set 23-21.
@PRANNOYHSPRI shows his lethal form as he makes a stunning comeback to set an upset by defeating World. No. 7 - Jonatan Christie of !
Score: 18-21, 21-16, 23-21
Way to go, champ! #ToyotaThailandOpen2021 #ToyotaThailandOpen#ThailandOpen2021 pic.twitter.com/qM2kOhMOKq — BAI Media (@BAI_Media) January 20, 2021
In the first game, Prannoy started slow but gathered momentum midway through the game as he pulled off some great cross-court smashes to stretch the sixth-seed. From trailing 9-11, he eventually got it even at 17-17. But the Indonesian was too good and wrapped up the game 21-18.
Prannoy increased his ferocity and seemed to be going for smashes a lot earlier in the second game. That forced Christie to change his game plan and therefore led to more unforced errors from the Indonesian. Prannoy won the set 21-16 and forced the match into a decider.
Here, once again Christie took an early lead and was up 11-8, but Prannoy was not ready to give up. So much so that the Indonesian had two match points at 20-18, and that was also the time Prannoy fell to the ground while attempting to return a shot and felt a dislocation in his left shoulder.
A physio was called to take a look, but to everyone’s surprise Prannoy continued to play and went on to win the game from that difficult position.
Amazing from @PRANNOYHSPRI
"I had a fall when he had match point and hurt my left shoulder. I felt it was dislocated but it went back into place. Right now it's ok but it might start hurting again after a while.”#HSBCbadminton #BWFWorldTour #ToyotaThailandOpen pic.twitter.com/dF0RA36w5u — BWF (@bwfmedia) January 20, 2021
Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lose
In other matches involving the Indian contringent, men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila beat New Zealand’s Oliver Leydon-Davis and Abhinav Manota 23-21, 21-17.
However, India’s women’s doubles campaign came to an early end as Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy fell 21-11, 21-19 to the German pair of Linda Efler and Isabel Herttrich.
Both Indian badminton players still have a lot to play for though. N Sikki Reddy will be seen in action in the mixed doubles later with husband B Sumeeth Reddy while Ashwini Ponnappa will play the second round with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.