HS Prannoy surprised himself and also his Taiwanese counterpart Chou Tien Chen, the eight seed, by winning their first round encounter 19-21, 21-18, 21-18. Prannoy had walked into the Championship with barely two weeks of training, sitting out for the better part of the last two months having undergone foot surgery to remove a nagging corn.
As Prannoy started the match against Tien on Wednesday evening, he was not sure what was in store considering he had not played any competitive badminton since the Indian Open, where he was upset in the first round. Little wonder then he was full of doubt entering the match. "I was surprised because I was out for two months so I was playing at 60 to 70%. The first set was pretty confusing for me," Prannoy told ESPN.
The confusion Prannoy had to deal with concerned settling down and finding the right strategy. What made his challenge more daunting was Tien being a big hitter. Despite losing the first game easily, Prannoy remained confident. He started to trust himself more. "I started to trust in what I am really good at and avoid what I am not really good at. That was the difference between the first game where I was trying to do things which I was not really comfortable with."
In the first game, Prannoy admitted he played lot "defensively", offering Tien easy hits and points. But in the last two games, he forced Tien to go and earn the points. "What I also changed was not offer him any easy lifts," he explained.
Tien was not giving up easily, though. Prannnoy pointed out that Tien's strength was to "sustain" long matches, so it was important to win points consistently. "I knew that he could push pace of the play and he was doing that especially in the third game, but I was mentally ready for that."
This is Prannoy's fourth visit to the All England Championships, where he is yet to go past the pre-quarterfinals. On Thursday, Prannoy will clash with Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto. For now, he is just happy he has lived to see another day.
"Before coming here the question for me was will I be able to play. I was really happy if I could just play a match. Now to win such a big round is really big result for me."