Young Indian shuttler H S Prannoy clinched the maiden title of his career after winning the $1,25,000 Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold, following his straight-game victory over local favourite Firman Abdul Kholik in the finals here on Sunday.
In a 43-minute battle, fifth seed Prannoy, who finished runners-up at the $50,000 Vietnam Grand Prix in Hochiminh City last week, got the better of qualifier Firman 21-11 22-20 in the men’s singles competition.
The 22-year-old Prannoy dished out a dominating performance in the opening game as he opened up a 6-2 lead early on and then kept increasing the distance. He then reeling off five straight points to take a lead 1-0 at the GOR Jakabaring stadium.
Firman regrouped himself in the second game and moved 5-3 up but Prannoy fought back at 6-6 and grabbed a slender 9-7 lead. The Indonesian once again surged ahead to 12-9 and thereafter it was a gruelling battle, but Prannoy managed to earned a four-match point.
However, Firman clawed back with four straight points to draw level at 20-20. Prannoy then dug deep to reel off the next two points to seal the door on his opponent and celebrate his first title victory.
Prannoy won a silver medal in Boys’ singles at 2010 Summer Youth Olympics.
An elated Prannoy said keeping an uncluttered mind helped him finish on top. “I am really happy with the win. I never thought could win a Grand Prix gold title. I was really upset after losing in Vietnam. But I thought I will take one match at a time here and it started working,” he said.
“My body was tired but I pushed myself each day and was confident of beating him but nervous too,” he added.
Prannoy said he ensured a tough semifinal match. “I knew if I stick to basics and not think about winning, it will pay off. The semifinal was a tough one but I played smartly,” he said.
National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand says he has a lot of hope on Prannoy. “I think it is really wonderful. He not only played well in Vietnam to reach the finals but winning in Indonesian Masters is really incredible. He was the only foreigner playing on the final day among the Indonesians,” said Gopichand.
“He is somebody on whom we have a lot of hope. He has been a little inconsistent like a lot of our shuttlers. But it is really good to see consistency in last two weeks. It will be a big boost for him to do well in future,” he added.
The coach said it was heartening to see different players winning medals and tournaments. “It is very good for Indian badminton with different players winning medals and tournaments. We had Kashyap and Guru (Gurusaidutt) winning medal at Commonwealth Games and then we had Srikanth winning in Thailand, we had Kashyap and Sourabh winning.
“Yes, we don’t have lee Chong Wei and Chen long here but then we hope we will reach the next level in future,” he said.
Gopichand said though Asian Games was going to be tough, the Indians were aiming for medals. “It is going to a tough event. We haven’t won many medals in the past but we have done well in the last two tournaments in CWG and World Championship. So we hope that we will get good performances in the Asian Games also.
Gopi’s academy
New Delhi: Meanwhile, coach Gopichand is all set to launch an academy in Gujarat next month and he is in talks with authories to open similar centers in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as well in the coming days.
“We are planning to open few centers across the country. We are taking to Gujarat, we will be definetely starting there next month. Bododra will be one of the first centers,” Gopichand said.
“There were many proposals from other state associations for opening academy. There was a request from the Rajasthan association. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore came in touch and a proposal was sent and it augured well for us. We will finalise the nitty-gritties after Asian Games.