A tenacious HS Prannoy defeated Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama to go to the semifinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 competition on Friday. While two-time Olympic champion P V Sindhu was unable to overcome her rival Tai Tzu Ying.
Malaysia Masters: Prannoy advances to the semifinals
Prannoy, a former top-10 player, survived a storm against world number 14 Tsuneyama, winning 25-23, 22-20 in a 60-minute quarterfinal match that ebbed and flowed continuously. Prannoy will meet Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus.
Seventh seed Sindhu lost 13-21 21-12 12-21 in 55 minutes versus world No. 2 Taiwanese. a week after being outwitted by Tai Tzu Ying at the Malaysia Open.
The silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics has defeated India in all seven of their previous encounters, was Sindhu’s 17th career opponent. On her way to winning the 2019 World Championship in Basel, Switzerland, Sindhu finally defeated Tzu Ying.
The men’s singles match proved out to be a cat-and-mouse affair between two extremely talented players, with Prannoy displaying greater nerves as he saved game points twice to defeat Tsuneyama.
Prannoy, who had a 2-1 head-to-head advantage, seized the opportunity early on to overturn a slim 1-2 disadvantage. But the match was a close one as the two progressed from 3-3 to 10-10 after some brief but aggressive rallies in the first set.
Prannoy scored four points in a row to increase his lead to 13-11. He tied the score at 14 with a spectacular leap smash before scoring 34 points in a row with another amazing jump smash. Before an unbalanced Prannoy fired another one, the Japanese managed to take a narrow 18-16 lead once more.
Soon after, Tsuneyama had two chances to earn game points. But Prannoy stopped both of them, earning a match point as the Japanese player went to the goal. After Tsuneyama went far, he gave a fist pump. Tzu Ying prevailed over Sindhu in the women’s competition by using her skill and cunning strategy. Sindhu once again tried to deceive.