Decoding Prannoy: Big smashes, muscle power and sowing doubts into opponents | Badminton News
As if playing HS Prannoy’s power & deception game isn’t challenging enough, there is another wicked static he’s racked up that makes opponents deeply uncomfortable. Nine times against the very top names in the past two seasons, Prannoy has lost the opening set and then turned the tables to take the next two.
The l of those that fear taking the first set lead against him after facing reverses includes Viktor Axelsen this week, Anthony Ginting at Australia, Srikanth at Japan, Chou Tien Chen and Li Shifeng at Malaysia, Lee Zii Jia at Mixed Asian Team Championship, Lakshya Sen at Malaysia last season, Axelsen at World Tour Finals end of 2022 and Rasmus Gemke at the Thomas Cup. It’s bad enough for opponents if Prannoy wins the first, but keeping them guessing, it’s even more ominous if he doesn’t.
Weng Hong Yang and Kunlavut Vitidsarn buck the trend and themselves came back from a set down against Prannoy, so he’s clearly not unbeatable. At 31, his fitness has obvious limitations, so a bronze it was. But there’s a dread on the circuit these days when they get drawn in his half, that a lurking Prannoy might more often than not make life terribly difficult. Two former champions in Loh Kean Yew and Axelsen found out this week that the erstwhile disruptor-in-chief, who nicked a marquee scalp here and there few years ago, can turn into destructor-in-chief and steal their medals.
“Prannoy just keeps getting better as a match progresses, and he finds rhythm as it gets longer,” explains coach Guru Saidutt. The term late-bloomer can be applied not only to his career, but to every match he plays as it is not uncommon to watch his quality of shotmaking get better in the decider than it was in the first. Guru has watched closely from sitting behind how this rising-phoenix-ability breaks opponents’ resolve, and wasn’t surprised when Prannoy pulled it off against Axelsen. It’s been a season of rope-a-dope tricks of lulling opponents into believing they are on top, before pulling the rug from under their feet.
Guru recalls a semifinal at Malaysia Masters, Prannoy’s first significant Tour title in May this year, against Kenta Nishimoto. “Prannoy looked really tiredaround 12th, 13th point of the second. But the moment the third game started, 3rd, 4th point he had gotten tremendous, and told me he had a lot of fuel left. I could see opponents’ level dropping and them giving off give-up vibes,” he says. He got tired against Vitidsarn, but for large number of wins this season, Prannoy’s fitness has actually held strong. “It’s the effect of three years of disciplined strength & conditioning training, not just one or two months,” Guru says.
India’s Prannoy H. S. in action during his men’s semi final singles match against Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn during the BWF World Championship at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Prannoy is an attacking player, but Malaysia, just like at the Copenhagen World’s, posed tough conditions to players. The usually fast, drifty courts where short matches would play out and much fitness wasn’t needed in previous years, had morphed into very slow conditions. “We realised early that Prannoy is coping better than others and after quarters knew he could go all the way.” At the tournament, he had come-from-behind wins against former Worlds silver medall Chou Tien Chen (16-21) and Chinese All England champion, Li Shifeng (13-21). “He had adapted to not winning in two games, and his 5th, 6th points were better than the 1st. All his opponents got impatient in the third and lost,” Guru says.
Prannoy’s success at big events though is also down to how much he enjoys and thrives playing in large arenas, and just how dangerous his game is in those conditions. “In the bigger halls where these Major tournaments happen, not everyone has a big smash that they can play at the end of a long, tiring rally,” Guru explains of the sheer explosive power that can help him muscle through after an endurance rally. “As an opponent, you realise this man doesn’t get tired and then he has that smash. He can make opponents feel unconfident in these situations, and he drives them into corners where players think they don’t have enough left at that point,” Guru says.
Against Axelsen, brawn combined with a sharp brain. Prannoy had a clear strategy of what worked and what didn’t, what was coming at him, and where he could test the Dane. At Japan Open where the Indian played two probing sets of 19-21 and 21-18 before running out of steam, he had rattled the defending champion, and it was evident that he was closest amongst all players to beating Axelsen. “Prannoy combined great plans and his own instincts to beat Viktor at World Championships. We saw Viktor cracking once the game got longer and slower. With each point in the second, Prannoy got better and the momentum changed as he played an intelligent, tactical game.” He’s gained a reputation of sowing doubts and following through on that mind anarchy he triggers in opponents.
Then there is the matter of surprise strokes, that he has courage to play at the clutch. Playing the Swiss Open semifinals in 2022 against Anthony Ginting, one of the quickest movers and anticipators on the circuit, Prannoy unleashed wicked deception in returns and changes in pace that boggled the Indonesian at the finish. Against Loh Kean Yew this week on Gopichand’s urging, Prannoy was brave enough to flick the serve back at 20 in the decider, despite knowing Loh was hitting hard. He dares to take risks in the end.
He has lost so much time to injuries and health issues that Prannoy doesn’t sweat the losses anymore and his mind is granite-strong as he preps for the next assignment. Guru who started travelling with Prannoy regularly only at the start of this season recalls the lowest point this year: a week before Malaysia, Prannoy was drubbed pretty convincingly Chou Tien Chen at the Sudirman Cup. It was a scarring loss, and left the Indians out of the tournament in group stage with 4 days of training in China. “The effort that Prannoy and Srikanth put in that week in sparring I’ll never forget. It was high intensity training, 1×1, 1×2 every session as Prannoy got his rhythm back in practice. His capability to win a title we all knew of, but I saw him really work hard those 4 days,” Guru recalls.Most Read
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Away from glare of tournaments and especially after losses, it’s been in training that he’s sharpened some trick strokes and gone 100 percent. And opponents have felt the heat each time he bounces back. He’s avenged losses from Malaysia at the start of the year and Singapore against Worlds final Kodai Naraoka, beating him the very next week at Indonesia. Prannoy’s read on opponents and plotting their downfall after a loss is legendary, and Kunlavut Vitidsarn won’t quite be comfortable running into him the next time.
A day before playing Loh Kean Yew in a thrilling prequarters, Prannoy spent the day’s break taking off on a cycle along one of Copenhagen’s scenic canals, as he recharged batteries being outdoors on the suggestion of his trainer. He’s learnt to switch off, so that he switches on, full throttle, when a match gets underway. And he’s revelling playing against the big names.
“We knew the crowd is big for Viktor, around 12 thousand people. And me and Gopi sir lost our voices screaming just to convey instructions in the first game,” Guru recalls of the now-famous medal match. Then Prannoy did his thing, working up a storm, slowing down the match and shushed the crowd as he chomped into the Dane’s lead. Gurusaidutt remembers the sweet sound of the descending silence of a packed Copenhagen arena. The rest of the badminton world watched and marvelled at how Prannoy pulled it off. The Indian knows, come Asian Games and Olympics, he can make opponents around the world very afraid once again.
