Badminton Asia Team C’ships: HS Prannoy shows off his rope-a-dope tricks in thrilling three-game win against Weng Hong Yang | Badminton News

Trailing 1-11 in the opening set, HS Prannoy got tongues wagging. It got cranky and borderline nasty as he lost the opener 6-21. the end of his 6-21, 21-18, 21-19 win however, fans watching on the Youtube stream couldn’t stop gushing about his back-from-the-dead skills. Though India lost the tie 2-3 to China, not affecting their quarterfinals progress, Prannoy served a reminder of why he was India’s No 1 and headed to the Olympics.It’s a script that forces double takes each time you watch it. Though Indians ought to know better, having seen him pull this off at Thomas Cup semifinals against Rasmus Gemke.
Playing the first men’s singles rubber against Weng Hong Yang, the cheeky Indian was simply telling the Chinese southpaw, just how many tricks he has up his sleeve, and how he can crackle up the embers of a fairly routine group match of the Asian Team Championships. The rivalry between the two players is only two-finals old, both winning one match each, but it always gets exciting. On Thursday in Shah Alam in Malaysia, Prannoy pulled off another one of his rope-a-dope hijinks.
Indian men will next face Japan in the quarters while the women, having toppled China, will play Hong Kong next. A potentially tricky opponent Kodai Naraoka perhaps lies in waiting for Prannoy.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman where he leant on the ropes letting his opponent have his punches and expending energy, absorbing the blows, before he countered with his own blitz. Prannoy at 1-11 down was on the ropes.
the time the score read 11-9 in the second, Prannoy was stringing Weng along both flanks, having risen from his sluggish start, the first set almost a prologue to the rest of the match. The change in momentum happened gradually without the intelligent Chinese realising the ebb of it, but it was visible in Prannoy’s hand speed and stomp of the feet.

For one, the 31-year-old started striking the shuttle high and sending it into a taller parabola that would tire out Weng’s arms just returning. Stroke after stroke, Prannoy gave the shuttle proper altitude, catching him on the high forehand at the back court, using his height. Just the prolonging rallies ate into Weng’s energy. Then came the net confrontations, and the Indian is a master at the forecourt with angles and raw anger with which the shuttle is lasered in.
It was the faster back and forths combined with the most frustrating length that broke down Weng at 21-18. Medical timeouts were smartly weaved in.
In the decider, the hand speed noticeably went up when the duo were deadlocked at 9-9. now he was charging to the net, and though the Chinese No 16 matched the No 7 in aggression, he didn’t have half of Prannoy’s subtle tricks.
At 16-18, Weng reckoned he was surging to the finish line. But it was on 17-18 that Prannoy pulled out his signature backhand straight whip along the lines, a shot of such skill that the Chinese was left dumbfounded. Prannoy played it from almost the back left corner, and with that torque, the most likely angle would be a crosscourt on the backhand. The Indian sent it straight as an arrow.

Prannoy’s backhand got him to 20-18 at the net. And because it is HSP vs WHY, and it cannot be over till there’s some dramatic ending, he dumped the silliest of smashes into the net to make it a giddy 20-19. For 21-19, it was once again one of those vertiginous tall floaters which had Weng reaching out high, and ending in the net. At the 11-1 break in the opener, Weng wouldn’t have imagined this.
Lulling opponents into a cushy start in the first set and getting them to believe they are on top of this, is Prannoy’s thing. Since the beginning of 2022, he has lost 24 first sets, and won 13 of those matches. A perennial slow starter, he is known to acquire a calm reading on opponents in this period, get a measure of the drift, look suitably brooding and bored, if not beaten already. Talk of his most recent injury and how he might not have recovered lingers conveniently.
And then he switches at a flick.

Not all of it is design and some secret plan. Maybe he genuinely takes time to get started. When he won the Malaysia Masters, he lost openers in his first two matches. That time he fooled Li Shifeng. It hasn’t worked against Naraoka. Yet, on Thursday, he finished off what he’d left unsettled at the Australia Open final against Weng, avenging him.
Hedging on the first set and leaving it to the end like MS Dhoni looks grand, but can backfire on days. In his 30s, playing three sets also prolongs recovery for next day’s round. His team has been working on getting him revved up quickly so he can wrap up in two sets. But when he drops the first, for opponents, there’s no guarantee that when he’s down, he’s bound to be out.