China Open: HS Prannoy stuns Watanabe in opener

Indian veteran HS Prannoy scripted an incredible comeback in the opening round of the China Open on Tuesday.

Prannoy, world No. 35, defeated world No. 18 Koki Watanabe 8-21, 21-16, 23-21 in a 57-minute thriller in the last Super 1000 tournament of the year.

Prannoy had a shakiy start to his campaign, losing the first game 8-21. He, however, bounced back to take the second game 21-16. The final set proved to be the most dramatic. Prannoy, trailing 2-11 at one point, saved 5 match points to take the game and match 23-21.

Speaking about the match, Prannoy said, “Unexpected, I would say. It doesn’t go your way most of the time. I’m lucky to be on the winning side. At this point of my career, each and every win kind of matters. But I'm happy to be back on tour.”

He will play sixth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals.

“There have been small breaks here and there. Obviously the level of playing men's singles have gone really high. So winning each round is getting tougher day by day. The average age has become 22-23 all of a sudden in the men’s singles category. A lot of fresh faces and you don’t really know what their game is. It's tough to be a veteran out there,” he added.

With the World Championship round the corner, Prannoy is looking forward to battering his bronze-winning performance. The Indian had ousted world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen to reach the semifinals in the previous edition in Denmark.

“The World Championship is always one of those events where as a player you always look forward to and you always want to perform better in. I have one month to go and I'm really looking forward to it. Denmark was very special for me and I would really love to go one more step ahead from Denmark,” he concluded.

It was another frustrating day for Lakshya Sen, who let a one-game lead slip away in a 21-14, 22-24, 11-21 defeat to China's fifth seed Li Shi Feng.

Anupama Upadhyay also made an early exit, going down 23-21, 11-21, 10-21 against Lin Hsiang Ti of Chinese Taipei in the women’s singles.

India’s mixed doubles pairs - Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh, as well as Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde crashed out in the first round, capping a disappointing day for the contingent.

Surya-Pramuthesh lost to Indonesian pair of Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 12-21, 17-21 while Kapoor-Gadde stumbled 27-25, 16-21, 14-21 to Lim Chiew Sien and Wong Tien Ci of Malaysia.

Amrutha Pramuthesh-Sonali Singh also lost their women’s doubles first round match to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu 12-21, 5-21. In another women’s doubles match, Kavipriya Selvam-Simran Singhi lost to USA’s Lauren Lam and Allison Lee 16-21, 14-21.