India Open Super 750: Prannoy overcomes gritty Priyanshu in all-India clash, Satwik-Chirag rectify a problem area in win over Taipei pair

After their first-round wins at the India Open Super 750, HS Prannoy and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty had a wish each. After defeating a tricky opponent in Chou Tien Chen, Prannoy said he wanted to stay alive in the tournament until closer to the weekend and was glad to finish the match in straight games so that he could remain fresher. For their part, Satwik-Chirag wanted to snap out of the recent habit they had developed of conceding a big lead in Game 2 after taking the openers, despite their ability to come back into the contest.

Both those wishes came true on Thursday at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi. They registered their respective wins on adjacent courts within two minutes of each other to reach the quarterfinals, albeit in a contrasting manner.

Despite coming onto the court a few minutes after Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat started their contest, the men’s doubles world No 2 eased past Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han of Chinese Taipei for a 21-14, 21-15 victory.

For Prannoy, it was a come-from-behind win against a gritty but unfortunate Priyanshu 20-22, 21-14, 21-14. The 21-year-old seemed to be enjoying the thrill of battling out with his senior in the opening game, which was superbly contested between the two men who train together in Hyderabad.

Priyanshu floored Prannoy with his signature crosscourt half smashes. Prannoy was made to work incredibly hard for his points, and he pulled out two rabbits out of the hat to save game points. But the opening game was a deserving reward for the shuttler from Dhar.

Prannoy responded well by starting the second game on fire but Priyanshu’s fight would be snuffed out soon due to an ankle-roll mid-rally. He started feeling the pain that curtailed his attacking strokeplay, but carried on, later revealing that he didn’t want the match to end because of his injury and he wanted to see it through.

“Unfortunate for Priyanshu I’d say, because he twisted his ankle in the second game. First game was very close, I had my chances at 18-16, but he played a steadier game till the end of the first game. I was ready to play the second and third games and I knew I had to stretch it long today to get this win. He was fighting till the end,” Prannoy said after the match.

The world No 9, who had to receive treatment twice in the decider himself for bleeding, just had to stay steady from thereon to complete a three-game win. But his post-match reaction was one full of praise for Priyanshu.

“When the draw puts three Indians in the same quarter of a Super 750 event, it is pretty irritating, to be honest. When you know that there is somebody who knows your game very well, it is important to know how well you execute during the game and score points,” the World Championships bronze medalist said.

“He (Priyanshu) has been somebody who has come up really well in the last one or two years and I am really happy to see somebody who is 21, playing at this level. I am sure you are going to see some big wins from him in the next four to five years.”

For Priyanshu, the concern now would be to see how serious the injury turns out to be. After his win against Lakshya Sen on Tuesday, he was full of excitement at having notched up a significant result after a while due to injury issues and expressed hope of making a late push for Paris. Fitness issues have often stood in his way of making a sustained impact, and he’d be hoping that it isn’t the case here.

Prannoy will now face Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei in the quarterfinals, where a win would ensure this is his best finish at the India Open. The India No 1 leads 5-3 on the Head-to-Head against the world No 28.

Dominance from SatChi

For Satwik-Chirag, Lu-Yang proved to be a tough nut to track when they met late last year at the Japan Masters opening round. With the Indians looking to make a dash to the finish line to qualify for the World Tour Finals, they lost to the Chinese Taipei pair despite taking the lead.

And so, they began in fifth gear, bringing their best attacking game to the court. Despite briefly being level at 8-8, the opening game belonged to the Indians through and through.

“Good win, the last time we played against them in Japan, we lost to them in the first round, so we wanted to take revenge. The way we played, we were dominating right from the start of the match. All the tactics that we had planned for the match kind of worked for us. We were quite charged up and we didn’t really want to give them any opportunity because they are a formidable pair,” Chirag said after the match.

Now to the trickier part. To try and not concede a lead in Game 2 to then fight back. Satwik quipped later that mentally he was ready to play the third game already, hoping that way he wouldn’t be under pressure to avoid a problem that has followed them since Malaysia last week. Despite being closer than the opener, the Indians never trailed even once in the second game to close the match out in straight games.

“Very happy to win in straight games. If we are off just a few seconds, we were giving away 4-5 points quickly. The good quality is we are able to come back but we want to cut down losing the five-six points,” Satwik said about the problem area they wanted to rectify.

On a day of many upsets, the most notable one was that of World No 1 pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, as their title defence came to a premature end. It opens the door for Satwik-Chirag to try and take over at the summit but much before that, they face a familiar and tricky pair in Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen. The Danes have often troubled Satwik-Chirag with their high-speed play, rushing them into positions they don’t like. But the Dane in India’s corner – coach Mathias Boe – would want to address that and improve the inferior 2-6 Head-to-Head.