Prannoy digs deep versus Wang, advances to semis at India Open

World No. 9 fights back in final game to beat Chinese Taipei shuttler; Satwik and Chirag also progress

- Sandip Sikdar

NEW DELHI: A slow starter, HS Prannoy is known to get better as the game progresses. While Kidambi Srikanth or Lakshya Sen know how to win points and subsequently games from the outset, the old war horse takes his own sweet time with endurance being his forte. So when the 31-year-old won the first game in the men's singles quarter-final against Wang Tzu Wei in a jiffy, it surprised many. But when the eighth seed lost the second, Prannoy fans were in for the same old another marathon battle at the $850,000 India Open here on Friday.

But the main hall of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium went quiet when the home favourite trailed 5-10 against the Chinese Taipei shuttler in the decider. But the marathon man from India delighted his fans wi he staged a come-from-behind victory to beat Wang 21-11, 17-21, 21-18 in an hour and 17 minutes and enter the men's singles semi-finals of his home Open for the first time.

"Men singles is a very wideopen category. You just can't finish things off quickly and come out. Players are going to fight for each round, especially getting to an Olympic qualification season. I really wanted to finish it off soon. But that's how some days are; you have to fight it out, some matches are long, you have to be gritty enough to win these kind of matches," Prannoy said after his sixth win in nine meetings over Wang.