Confused and surprised Prannoy, makes it to pre-quarters at the All England 2018

HS Prannoy flabbergasted by his win over the Taiwanese opponent, the eighth seeded Chou Tien Chen, in the first round of the prestigious All England Open Championships 2018 in Birmingham on Wednesday. .

Prior to the tournament, Prannoy barely had two weeks of training as he laid back after encountered with the foot corn during the India Open first round match, followed by the surgery.  

Prannoy with the vague thoughts to progress in the tournament, started the campaign without foreseeing anything considering he had not played any match since the India Open. He said, “I was not 100% as I was out for two months. The first match was perplexing and surprising for me,” as quoted the saying by ESPN.  

Notwithstanding who the opponent is, Prannoy remained confident and started trusting himself. “This first match of the tournament is different than any other match in the opening round. I forgot what I’m not good at and focussed on what I’m best at. Probably, that could the difference,” he added.

For being too defensive, Prannoy admitted that he gave away easy hits to Tien. In the next two games, Tien struggled moving around the court to save the points. “Later I changed my strategy and didn’t offer him easy hits,” he elucidated.  

Tien strength sustained him in playing the long matches, and he was not capitulating. “I was mentally prepared for that and saved the points consistently.”

In the next round, Prannoy will face Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia. “I was skeptical if I will play or not before coming to the tournament. I was really happy if I could just play a match. Now, winning such a big round is great thing for me.”