Prannoy seeks turnaround after misses
NEWDELHI: HS Prannoy is ranked a career-high world No 8. From Lin Dan to Lee Chong Wei, he has beaten them all. But the 25-yearold is yet to reach the heights and win tournaments that would justify his talent.
Pullela Gopichand’s protégé has also lost several close contests that have proved costly in his career. However, Prannoy is confident of getting his act together.
“It is just a matter of time, of probably breaking the jinx once... going on and winning one tournament and things will fall into place. I will know exactly what I need to do on that particular day about things not going my way. I am trying to sort it out, and am slowly getting better,” said Prannoy.
“Probably in Asian Championships it was much better from my side, lot of crucial matches where I had to think out of the box and play; that really helped.”
This year too, Prannoy lost in the opening round of the Syed Modi Grand Prix in Lucknow, to a much lower-ranked Shreyansh Jaiswal. He lost in the quarterfinals of the All England Open before making the semis at the Badminton Asia Championships, beating then World No 1 Son Wan-ho on the way. He did not win an individual medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Prannoy laments the loss of close matches.
“It is tough to forget those... like in All England or CWG. There were a couple of matches where it went the other way. CWG was a bad day for me; I couldn’t finish it off despite a couple of match points and didn’t really try in the third game; mentally I was off,” said Prannoy.
“I have had a couple of bad matches but I always feel these are the things which make you learn and make you think that you need to do something extra, out of the box.”
In K Srikanth and Prannoy, India has two male shuttlers in the world’s top 10 – something that has not happened in a long time. A healthy rivalry is developing between the two friends who train together at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. Srikanth has a 3-1 advantage over Prannoy.
“It is not really a rivalry, but yeah that is how it is when the top two players of the country play against each other. It is really good for Indian badminton,” said Prannoy, whose last win was at the US Open in July 2017.
“Srikanth has done well in the last season and raised the bar – a Superseries winner to be in the top chart. That motivates me.”
I have had a couple of bad matches but I always feel these are the things which make you learn. HS PRANNOY, On his mistakes₹
KOHLI RANKED 83RD
Kohli, the only sportsperson from India to be featured in the list, is ranked 83rd with earnings of $24 million.
Kohli, 29, is not just cricketcrazy India’s biggest name but is also one of the most popular athletes in the world, “boasting more Twitter followers (25 millionplus) than all but three active sports stars”, Forbes said.
The ‘World’s Highest-paid Athletes 2018’ list is topped by 41-year-old Mayweather, with $285 million earnings.
This year, The Board of Control for Cricket in India named Kohli as one of just five players to receive the newly-created A+ contracts, which guarantee an annual retainer of more than $1 million, it said.