BWF World Tour Finals 2022: HS Prannoy ends campaign with win over world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen
Despite the win, the Indian badminton player will not progress to the semi-finals as he lost his previous two group matches.
Indian badminton player HS Prannoy ended his campaign at the BWF World Tour Finals 2022 with a 14-21, 21-17, 21-18 win over world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in his third and final Group A men’s singles match in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday.
This was HS Prannoy’s second win over the reigning Olympic and world champion Viktor Axelsen. The Indian badminton player scored his first victory over Viktor Axelsen at the Indonesia Masters last year after five straight losses.
Despite the win, HS Prannoy will not progress to the BWF World Tour Finals 2022 semi-finals as he lost his previous matches against Japan’s Kodai Naraoka and Lu Guang Zu of China, respectively.
Viktor Axelsen already qualified by winning his first two matches and will be joined in the last four by the winner of the match between Kodai Naraoka and Lu Guang Zu in the next round. Only two players from each of the two groups progress to the semi-finals.
HS Prannoy, 12th in the badminton world rankings, started the match on equal footing against the world No. 1 Danish shuttler. However, at 5-5, Viktor Axelsen raced ahead by winning five straight points and eventually took a 1-0 lead.
Prannoy was once again in a spot of bother in the second game trailing 10-6. The Indian badminton player then engaged in longer rallies and squeezed out a number of unforced errors from Viktor Axelsen to take the game into the decider.
HS Prannoy lost his previous two group matches from a winning position but kept his composure to build a five-point lead after being tied at 12-12 in the third game. Viktor Axelsen threatened to take the match away in the later stages but HS Prannoy played without errors to complete an impressive win.
HS Prannoy qualified for his maiden BWF World Tour Finals on the back of some strong performances this year. Only the top eight shuttlers and pairs on the BWF World Tour Finals standings for the season compete in the year-ending BWF World Tour Finals.
HS Prannoy helped the Indian badminton team clinch its first Thomas Cup crown in May and finished runner-up at the Swiss Open Super 300 tournament. He also reached the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 and Malaysia Masters Super 500 events.
The results helped Prannoy finish third on the BWF World Tour Finals standings and also regain his position in the top 15 of the badminton world rankings almost after four years.
PV Sindhu, who is nursing an ankle injury, is the only Indian to go all the way in the competition. She won the women’s singles title at the BWF World Tour Finals in 2018.