The 'okay player' who is badminton world No 12: Prannoy is the rising star who wasn't meant to be "He will never be able to play singles. He isn't fast, in fact, he is slow and he should shift to doubles," a coach to Indian badminton player HS Prannoy's dad Sunil Kumar. He wasn't the only coach saying that either. Prannoy was winning in the juniors but they felt that he had reached his limit. But few reckoned that these negative comments would only strengthen his dad's resolve. He pushed Prannoy even harder and now as World No.12, the boy from Kerala has done more than just prove his coaches wrong. The 22-year-old Prannoy isn't as well known as Kidambi Srikanth, who is also 22, or even Parupalli Kashyap. But his rapid strides have made him one to watch out for. His ability to adapt his game means that opponents haven't quite figured him out as well. "I don't want to name the coach -- he has a lot of students now -- but I met him a few times and he kept saying that I was the only one he got wrong and he was really sorry for that," said Prannoy in a conversation with Firstpost. So when the coaches told him that his son wouldn't be any good in singles -- he was determined to prove them wrong. He had also seen a spark -- that perhaps Prannoy himself hadn't seen in himself. "I didn't believe in myself. I still don't," said Prannoy. "At times, it is really bad because sometimes I am just not sure of what I want to do next." "I was not sure of wanting to play badminton even when I was in the 10th. I had thought I was an okay player and there were many better than me," Prannoy, who is supported by the Go Sports Foundation, added in a typically modest manner. But it all changed in 2010 when Prannoy won a silver at the Youth Olympics. "It was the first step for me. I was playing well and had played well at the Junior Worlds (where he won the bronze medal) and this convinced me that I had a chance. The jump to seniors is a tough one and this showing was great motivation to me." But, of course, at no point did things just fall in place. The next two years were tougher and filled with injuries (knee injury in 2011 just before the nationals, then again in 2012 -- followed by a back injury in 2012 which took 5-7 months to recover from) but a conversation with coach Pullela Gopichand helped put him at ease. "Gopi Sir just said that put two years aside for injuries. He said the average career will be around nine years -- 'put two years out because of injury and push yourself to the absolute limit. You are young now, injuries will happen -- there is no escaping that. Even if you get injured now, it is fine. Push when you are young,'" Prannoy said. "'Once you are older, you can take it a little easy. But now, push ahead'." "It was tough to see others go above you but it made me realise what I needed to change as well. Earlier, my training was finding an empty court and playing. Now, I am in an academy which is probably the best in the world. You train keeping in mind specific areas of your game." "When I was in the juniors, I used to smash about 90 percent of the time. I would just attack all the time and most of the time, other players could not pick up my smashes. But at the senior levels, the smash didn't work as well. Others had worked on their defence. So I had to change. "My game changed partly because of the injuries as well... in 2013, for example, I avoided smashing completely for the first six months. And I won a few big games as well -- I beat Taufiq Hidayat. As things stand, I am a bit of an allrounder. Still 70-80 percent attacking but my defence has improved and that helps me in a tough match; it helps me hang in and compete." The World Championships begin on 10 August and truth be told, Prannoy isn't quite looking forward to the tournament. He is just coming off a long injury layoff (a toe injury) and hasn't even started training at full steam. "My stamina isn't where it should be and honestly, I expect to get past the first two rounds and then it will get difficult. I know that my ranking is going to fall pretty rapidly now -- I have a lot of points to defend and given my fitness levels, that is a difficult task at hand." For now, though, Prannoy is focussing on just getting back to his best. The injury might have cost him a spot at the Rio Olympics but his goal is simple -- to get better and to win. "If the Olympics doesn't happen, then so be it. But I want to go out and win the next biggest thing; I want to go out and win the Super Series. There is a big emptiness in my career on the big wins front." http://http://www.firstpost.com/sports/okay-player-badminton-world-no-12-prannoy-rising-star-wasnt-meant-2377032.html
Beating Jorgensen three time is not an easy task. This guy Pranoy has a tremendous future ahead of him and is a very promising talent. He needs more training & focus with which he can go on to become a world nos 1. I cant wait to see Pranoy beating Chen Long & Lee Ching Wei.
"Not the kind of result which I expected today . Definitely could not raise my game today . Need to work more hard to win a tournament" Prannoy tweeted after he lost to Ng ka long.
BAI announced 5 lakh rupees to Prannoy for his SWISS open performance. I wonder how they will award cash prizes when more and more indian players win tournaments. Definitely, that will happen in the future. Will they award everybody?
In a bizarre turn of events, a scorekeeping error forced the 2016 Swiss Open MS Champion - India’s HS Prannoy - to play an extra game. In the second game of the QF against Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, Prannoy fought his way up from 6-12 to 11-12. Tanongsak won the next rally. However, instead of 11-13, the score jumped to 11-14 in Tanongsak’s favour. Prannoy protested but, instead of checking, the umpire simply stuck to the mistake. Either the umpire had added two points by mistake or the scoring system was in error. In any case, the umpire - who is responsible for the score - should have checked when the player protested. Twice more in this same game (at 15-15 and 20-21), the scoreboard added an extra point to Tanongsak. Luckily for Prannoy, the officials realized that something was wrong and corrected it on both occasions. However, the first scoring error at 11-12 was never rectified. This meant that, when the score was tied at 20-20, it was actually 20-19 in Prannoy’s favour. And when Prannoy took the next point to make it 21-20, it was actually 21-19. At that moment, Prannoy had actually won both the game and the match. Unfortunately, he was robbed off that straight sets victory and was forced into playing a third and deciding game. Although he won it easily (21-9), it was an extra game forced on him by stubbornly silly umpiring.
^ the thing is Tanongsak was standing dumb there! He knew the reality and could've rectified doing the needful, anybody with lil sportsman spirit would've done that!
Prannoy packs a big smash but he doesnt mix it well enough. That cost him the match against Saensomboonsuk today. The coach staff in India sucks.
19-21, 20-22 last week against the World No.2 - Kento Momota. 21-18, 18-21, 19-21 today against the World No.1 - Chen Long. This young Indian player is amazing, by any yardstick. If I were a top player, I would watch out for HS Prannoy.
He has surely improved a lot!! But the only thing is finishing, he fight all the way quite hard but then just falters to convert it in his favor! I may sound harsh, but converting "well played" to "victory" is a requisite
Prannoy is in the list of most Desirable men in Hyderabad. Even Kashyap is in the list. I wonder whether he knew Telugu. KS name is not included in the list. If somebody want to vote. Here is the link. http://ww.itimes.com/times-polls/hyderabad-times-most-desirable-men-2015-telugu He even joked in his twitter , "Haha this is an achievement for me listed in Hyd most desirable men !!!
Thank you for the kind words about me. I will try my best to do better in the days to come. Cheers!!!!!!!
Welcome to Badminton Central, Prannoy. Thank you for being here and posting a comment in your thread. We would be delighted if you posted more about yourself when you have the time to do so. And, of course, it will be awesome if occasionally you could reply to questions we amateurs might have about the world of professional players.
Prannoy, great pleasure to see you in the forum. If you saw the match tonight between Sony and Lin Dan, any comment on it? You beat Lin Dan in your last encounter. Is there a secret tactic to beat Lin Dan? Why Lee Chong Wei cannot beat Lin Dan?
Welcome to Badminton Forum Prannoy. Hope you do well in the upcoming China Masters. You almost beaten Chen long. So, try to understand your own potential whenever you step on to the court (Likewise, Hanuman does not know his own power ), you will be champion for sure. Unfortunately, your match against ChenLong was not on tv court. After having a lead 18-16 in the 3rd game, you lost it 19-21. Really we were sad on seeing that. Hope to see you in more semis and finals !
