Prannoy Axe-lsen, Sat-Chi lose

HS PRANNOY dipped into his hat and found a colony of rabbits as the Indian shuttler engineered a sensational takedown of World No. 1, Viktor Axelsen. In the process, Prannoy guaranteed at least a bronze medal at the ongoing World Championships (at least one Indian has medalled at every edition of the Worlds since 2011).

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The match was going as per script after the Dane, playing in front of a raucous home crowd at the Royal Arena, had won the first game 21-13. That’s when Prannoy, shoulder heavily strapped after taking a tumble recently, cut the errors from his game.

Instead, Axelsen, who has always found Prannoy an awkward opponent (a lot of their H2Hs have gone the full distance), was the one making the errors. With the crowd letting out nervous energy, the 31-year-old knew he was on the road to picking up his first Worlds medal. What he successfully did was he didn’t allow the defending champion the space to unleash those damaging smashes from the backcourt.