Paris, July 28 :India’s HS Prannoy started off his maiden Olympic badminton campaign in style with a straight-game win against lesser-ranked Fabian Roth of Germany in men’s singles competition here on Sunday.
The 32-year-old from Kerala, who was down with chikungunya for almost two weeks ahead of the Paris Games, gave a good display of fitness and showed his mettle during the 21-18 21-12 win over Roth in a group K encounter that lasted 45 minutes.
He will next face Le Duc Phat of Vietnam on Wednesday in the second and final group match.
“When you’re in the winning side of it, I think it feels great. Yes, it started off a little patchy. I think the atmosphere is electric out there. So to kind of suddenly get into that tournament mode is not easy,” said Prannoy after his match.
“I think I’ve seen a lot of players struggling out there in the first matches. Yeah, but happy that I could kind of push through that first game and wrap it up in straight sets.”
Prannoy was tested by the world No. 82 Roth, who engaged the Indian in some quality rallies. After an initial duel, Roth was up 14-11 at one stage but an alert Prannoy upped the pace to make it 19-17.
A sharp smash gave him two game points and he converted them after his opponent erred at the net.
Prannoy, who had won bronze medals at the World Championships and the Asian Games last year, looked more at ease in the second game as he found his range and constructed the rallies well to move to 7-3.
Prannoy’s net game, attacking shots and deft touch helped him to move to 16-11 in a jiffy. A backhand stroke handed the Indian eight match points and he sealed the affair after Roth sprayed a shot wide.
Asked what kind of adjustments he had to make, Prannoy said: “I think it was to understand what kind of game to play. Probably it was a mix and match. Sometimes I was attacking, sometimes I was in defensive mode but I really understood that he wanted to get the hold of net really quickly and probably he was finding it until 16 and I think suddenly when I started to open up things started to change.”
The longer duration of rallies did make it easier for the Indian as the match progressed.
“A little bit more of longer rallies towards the end of the first game made things a little bit more easier for me I would say, from the fact that I was finding the length from that side. So yeah, that gave a lot of confidence.
“I knew that the second game I should be in control because I think a lot of nerves went off after that first game and I could feel that relaxed space, especially in the second game.” (PTI)
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