Badminton Asia Championships: Sai Praneeth carries Indian hopes in Men’s Singles event
India had a woeful run in the Men’s Singles event of Badminton Asia Championships as all of their prime shuttlers crashed out in preliminary rounds. However, young B. Sai Praneeth saved country’s honour by making it into pre quarter-finals on April 18, 2012.
Earlier, it was end of road for top Indian campaigner Ajay Jayaram in second round while other prominent shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Sameer Verma were cast out in the very first round of the event.
The 19-year-old Sai Praneeth overpowered Wing Ki Wong in a 33-minute tussle to ensure his presence in the third round. He registered a favourable margin of 21-19 and 21-16.
In opening game of the match, both contenders displayed premium class badminton and their efforts were applauded by all sections of the audience.
Sai Praneeth, who was underdog in this tournament earlier, took a confident start against his higher ranked rival and put a decent three-point lead in the beginning. However, Wing Ki first levelled the lead at 5-5 and then added three consecutive points
in his total to reach an 8-5 score position.
However, the young Indian managed to gain a slight edge before the interval with an 11-10 score.
After mid-game break, none of the players could establish a distinctive lead over his challenger and remained close until game point situation. This cliff-hanging tussle finally ended when Sai Praneeth clinched first match point with 21-19 score on board.
The Hong Kong shuttler launched a brisk attack in following game and got into a commanding position with a 6-1 score in the first half of the set but Sai Praneeth showed some amazing improvement and caught him at 7-7 score position.
Wing Ki, currently ranked 19 in world rankings, was leading with 11-9 score until one-minute break but the unseeded Sai Praneeth added three quick points to his total.
Last part of the second set completely belonged to the Indian as he bagged eight out of the final eleven points to win this crucial tussle with a 21-16 score in his favour.
This splendid straight-set victory took him to pre quarter-final round where he will be swinging his arms against Zhengming Wang of China.
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