Lone ranger HS Prannoy eyes glory at maiden World Tour Finals

Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy will look to show fearless model of badminton towards the perfect within the enterprise in his quest for glory on his maiden BWF World Tour Finals look.

With double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu skipping the occasion on account of an damage, Prannoy would be the lone Indian on the year-ending event, which was moved from Guangzhou, China, as a result of rise in COVID-19 an infection instances.
One of essentially the most constant Indian gamers within the circuit this season, Prannoy has been clubbed in Group A together with Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, Japan’s Kodai Naraoka and China’s Lu Guang Zu.

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“I am excited to start my BWF World Tour Finals campaign. It’s my first time in the year-ending championships and I hope I can perform well,” mentioned the third-seeded Prannoy, who was not too long ago conferred with the Arjuna award.

While Prannoy has received an honest draw and can fancy his possibilities of making it to the semifinals from the group stage, it is not going to be a simple activity as he doesn’t maintain a great document towards his group opponents. Prannoy has a dismal 1-5 document towards the world No. 1 Axelsen however he would take confidence from the truth that he had defeated the Dane of their final assembly final 12 months in Indonesia Masters.

Against the 21-year-old new sensation Kodai Naraoka, Prannoy had suffered a defeat of their solely assembly in Singapore Open in July. The Indian had misplaced to China’s Lu Guang Zu too in his solely assembly at French Open. However, Prannoy, who has been nominated for BWF’s ‘Most Improved Player of the Year’ award, is thought to lift his sport in big-ticket occasions and has been a revelation this 12 months.

He performed a stellar position in India’s epic Thomas Cup win in May and in addition produced a runner-up end on the Swiss Open Super 300, in addition to reaching the semifinals on the Indonesia Open Super 1000 and Malaysia Masters Super 500 occasion.

His nice run on this planet tour occasions earned him a direct qualification to the season finale for the primary time in his profession and he would look to take advantage of the chance this week. While defending champion Axelsen is definitely essentially the most tough hurdle on his approach, Prannoy can ill-afford any slip-ups towards the opposite two opponents.

Axelsen has swept the season, creating an amazing 39-match successful streak – a world document within the self-discipline – and successful 5 Super Series titles. Among others within the area, Chou Tien Chen, Jonatan Christie, Anthony Ginting, and Loh Kean Yew are all able to going the space within the occasion. But Prannoy, who’s fondly known as ‘the beast’ by his pals, could possibly be the darkish horse, particularly for his capability to create upsets.

The world quantity 12 hasn’t received a title for over 5 years and he’ll look to finish issues on a excessive forward of the brand new season.

For India, Sindhu is the one one to win the distinguished title, whereas Sameer Verma reached the final 4 stage within the 2018 version. In girls’s singles, defending champion An Se Young, world champion Akane Yamaguchi, Olympic champion Chen Yufei and He Bingjiao, who claimed Denmark Open and French Open titles, are all robust contenders.

Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchanok Intanon won’t have had an excellent season, however their previous years’ achievements will hold them in competition.