The Indian Badminton contingent continues to dazzle all as HS Prannoy battled his way into the round of 16 in the Men’s Singles after defeating Vietnam’s Duc Phat Le in three sets on Wednesday.
A fiery Prannoy would ultimately triumph over the composure of the Vietnamese in three sets of 16–20, 21-11, 21-12 and will face off against his Indian compatriot Lakshya Sen next.
Prannoy started slower, allowing the Vietnamese Le to claim the first handful of points. But, the Indian methodically played his way back into the game and took the early lead at 4-3 in the first set.
A tight game enused there onwards, as both Le and Prannoy traded points, keeping the contest tight. But, Le ultimately crawled his way back into the lead, as they sttod at 11-10 halfway into the first set.
Prannoy seemed to be on his toes, reacting sharply to Le’s returns, but the Vietnamese was seemingly more at ease and picking his moments rather than forcing the issue.
Le’s calmness would result in him yiedling a 4-point lead, but aloowing Prannoy to find his rhythm with his active movement would come back to haunt the Vietnamese temporarily as the Indian lingered just a point or two away from him.
Positioned at a lead of 17-15 over Prannoy, Le would finally turn the heat up, attacking with a couple of powerful timely smashes and some fancy footwork to keep the lead and finish off the set 21-16 and clinch the first game.
Prannoy though would not fold easily as the Indian would get going with a blazing start to clinch the first four points of the second set.
The clapback from the Indian would fire up Le, who in return would pull out a flurry of backhanded cross-court flicks to cut the lead down to 3-5. But, there was no matching Prannoy’s aggression, who would go on to stand tall at a lead of 12-8 by the halfway mark of the second set.
And the dominance from the Indian would just continue throughout, as Prannoy would demolish Le 21-11 and push the Vietnamese for a decider.
With the fate of their Olympics campaign on the line, both stars came out with aggression, unleasing smashes and feints galore to get the better of the other.
But neither could initally create any big leads as they traded points back and forth, almost till the halfway mark, by when Prannoy would finally eke out a three-point lead of 11-8.
Prannoy would only go on to build on his lead, as the Indian marched onwards with utmost confidence and make light work of Le to win the decider 21-12.
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