Unfortunately for India fans, it’s the end of their challenge in Malaysia Open. Action continues next week with Malaysia Masters. We will leave you with this column by former India player Shlok Ramchandran.
Shuttle Zone: Badminton could really use a data revolution, starting from broadcast to coaching
Men’s singles QF: HS Prannoy bows out 18-21, 16-21 Jonatan Christie
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu bows out 21-13, 15-21, 13-21 against Tai Tzu Ying
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 16-21 Jonatan Christie: It was a close match alright, but ultimately, HS Prannoy couldn’t find the consistency he has been playing with most of the matches in recent times.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 16-20 Jonatan Christie: Prannoy nets a lift. Match points.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 16-19 Jonatan Christie: A soft backhand from JoJo, HSP staying in it.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 15-19 Jonatan Christie: Good aggressive point from Prannoy, one more closed down. But still a handy lead for JoJo, the Indian has no margin for error.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 14-19 Jonatan Christie: The voice has indeed turned to “Ayo Jojo” and the Indonesian is on the brink of a win. He then misses a sitter.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 13-17 Jonatan Christie: Slipping away from Prannoy here. He sends a lift long and then JoJo pounces at the net.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 13-15 Jonatan Christie: What a point for JoJo! How has he won that. HSP puts him under immense pressure but he keeps the shuttle in play and forces the error out of Prannoy. Worth a rewatch later in the day, that one.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 11-13 Jonatan Christie: The Indonesian was starting to pull ahead, a timely and precise smash from Prannoy to get the serve back.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 9-11 Jonatan Christie: The Indonesian takes a slender lead into the interval. Another decision that seemed challengeable.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 9-10 Jonatan Christie: A fantastic fast exchange and a huge roar from Prannoy at the end.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 7-9 Jonatan Christie: It’s one point each pretty much at the moment. Great back and forth.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 5-7 Jonatan Christie: Prannoy pumping himself up after a good winner down the line.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 4-6 Jonatan Christie: Kill becomes overkill for HSP, had the point for taking but goes long.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 4-5 Jonatan Christie: Christie cannot quite believe it. A perfectly fine winner has been called out and the chair umpire has no interest in overruling it. Maybe HSP knows it too but he wasn’t happy with a decision early in the opening game. All is fair in love and challenge-less badminton matches.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21, 2-2 Jonatan Christie: Some nice rallies to begin the second game.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-21 Jonatan Christie: Oh, the net chord! The shuttle took a second to decide which way to fall and then fell in favour of the Indonesian. Good fightback at the end by HSP but Christie deserved to take that opening game,
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 18-20 Jonatan Christie: Three game points saved... another pacy point.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 17-20 Jonatan Christie: One game point saved with a nice 1-2 punch by HSP. Another saved by a quick flat exchange.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 15-20 Jonatan Christie: Backhand at the net goes wide, then a forehand push goes wide (after a good rally) and it is game points galore for Christie.
(Score corrected)
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 15-18 Jonatan Christie: SUPERB RALLY! Fantastic pace from both players, but eventually HSP wins the point with a crosscourt winner that leaves JoJo on the court. Make that two super rallies, this time JoJo with a brilliant winner at the net.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 14-16 Jonatan Christie: Another two points that Prannoy would desperately want back. Soft errors.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 13-13 Jonatan Christie: The shot quality in rallies is actually quite high, but both players making errors with their closing shots that they would like to avoid. A nice kill down the line by Prannoy to get the serve back... and next point is a superb finish round the head crosscourt.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 9-11 Jonatan Christie: This is warming up nicely... lovely fast rallies. A stunning defensive effort by HSP in one of the points but JoJo kills it off. The Indonesian takes a slender lead into the break.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 7-6 Jonatan Christie: Prannoy sneaks ahead 6-5 and a brilliant rally follows. And the Indian is not happy with the decision. Seemed like JoJo’s kill at the net was long but the officials might have deemed a touch from the Indian. He is not pleased. Responds with a powerful smash.
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy 3-4 Jonatan Christie: JoJo off to the better start... but as I say that, the kind of smash we have seen a lot from HSP lately. Precise, authoritative
Men’s singles QF, HS Prannoy vs Jonatan Christie: The match is underway. Prannoy was in imperious form as he defeated Chou with a scoreline of 21-7 in the second game, winning 12 points in a row to close out the match and improve his head-to-head to 2-4 in the sixth meeting between them.
Men’s singles QF: Time now for HS Prannoy vs Jonatan Christie to start.
Men’s singles QF: HS Prannoy could have to wait a little bit if the Malaysians take their fancied opponents to a third game.
Men’s singles QF: HS Prannoy vs Jonatan Christie will be after this match in women’s doubles.
Men’s singles QF: HS Prannoy vs Jonatan Christie is 5th match on court 2, second match about to end.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 13-21 Tai Tzu Ying: And so TTY extends her H2H against Sindhu to 16-5 and makes it six wins on the trot. Sindhu had her chances today, started superbly. But once TTY got the hang of court conditions and controlled the shuttle, it was just too good.
Here’s a look at how the decider panned out:
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 13-21 Tai Tzu Ying: UNREAL! Sindhu can only smile wryly. Tai Tzu Ying with some more magic, a behind-the-back shot to eventually win a point. Too good.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 13-20 Tai Tzu Ying: And TTY has match points galore. Another great drop to draw Sindhu forward.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 13-18 Tai Tzu Ying: A great review by TTY followed another insane crosscourt net shot. How, just how.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 13-16 Tai Tzu Ying: Good defence by Sindhu to win the serve back and then an utterly bizarre leave by TTY! Hope for Sindhu.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 11-15 Tai Tzu Ying: And TTY is on the charge. It’s hers to lose now.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 9-11 Tai Tzu Ying: A challenge by Sindhu but that was worth al look, just wide though. Another flat rally ends with a error at the net by PV. Lovely touch by TTY to force that mistake. And the former world No 1 has a lead into the final change of ends for her good side. Huge task for Sindhu.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 9-9 Tai Tzu Ying: Soft backhand by TTY. Back level.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 8-9 Tai Tzu Ying: Sindhu has caught up. There was another fierce flat rally in this phase. The Indian plays another good point but the lift goes long.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 6-7 Tai Tzu Ying: A SUPERB RALLY! Sindhu with the early pressure, the smashes landing well. But TTY withstands that with her defence and then closes the point with a smash of her own. Next rally, TTY misses an easy smash.
(Score corrected in previous update)
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21, 4-5 Tai Tzu Ying: From what I could make out, coach Park was asking Sindhu to play more downward strokes and move quickly from forehand to the backhand side. She needs a good start to the decider. TTY pulls ahead early but Sindhu closes it down to 2, then 1 with just that... powerful downward strokes.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-21 Tai Tzu Ying: And TTY wakes back up from a quick power nap to run away with the 2nd game in the end. Gritty fightback from Sindhu, but it was more down to do Tai’s errors and it was just a matter of her finding the groove back. Encouraging signs for Sindhu though.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 15-18 Tai Tzu Ying: What a rally! Brilliant from both players but in the end TTY closes it out with a lovely smash. No deception there. End of a run of 7 straight points for SIndhu
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 14-17 Tai Tzu Ying: A backhand miss, a forehand miss... wild ones too. And wow, we are close.11 of the last 14 points for the Indian.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 12-17 Tai Tzu Ying: Not sure there is great tactical lessons for Sindhu here, she is just doing every thing she can to send the shuttle back and TTY is making the errors. She is missing the lines often now and suddenly, it is a 5-point game. TTY tends to do this
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 7-15 Tai Tzu Ying: Sindhu nods at her coach, a good little run of three points... make it four. Drawing TTY to the net seems to be working. Tries it again, but misses the lines this time.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 3-14 Tai Tzu Ying: Important tactical phase of the game coming up. Sindhu will need to figure out her tactics to play from this side for the 2nd half of the decider. Otherwise she is in trouble. If she can get a few points here could be handy. But TTY is relentless at the moment.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 3-11 Tai Tzu Ying: Huge lead for TTY here, might be damage control for Sindhu. Gets the serve back after 8 straight points with a good aggressive point and plays another well constructed point drawing TTY forward. But misjudgement at the back and it’s a comfortable lead for the former world No 1.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13, 1-8 Tai Tzu Ying: Second point of the second game, a really good net shot by Sindhu is met with an INSANE net shot by TTY. That is unreal, look at the angle. It’s one-way traffic since after a couple of good early rallies.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 21-13 Tai Tzu Ying: Superb first game for PV Sindhu, the game ended with an error from TTY but largely, Sindhu forced her to make mistakes in the game with her up tempo.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 19-13 Tai Tzu Ying: For a change a tactical challenge that goes wrong from Sindhu’s opponent! It’s usually her thing (we kid, we kid... almost). A good smash and then it is another big lead for the Indian. But misjudgement at the back means TTY has the serve back.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 16-11 Tai Tzu Ying: A sizeable lead for Sindhu post interval, 15-8, then 16-10 but three smashes from TTY to keep herself in sight.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 11-7 Tai Tzu Ying: A sharp smash by Sindhu and she takes a handy lead into the mid-game interval.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 10-7 Tai Tzu Ying: A deception from TTY that sent completely the wrong way but it ended up being an error. Would have been magical if that come over the net. But Sindhu playing some good stuff here. A couple of sharp rallies form the Indian to move back into the lead.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 7-7 Tai Tzu Ying: Sindhu inches ahead on the back of a few solid points, but TTY catches up with a brilliant defensive effort.
Women’s singles QF, PV Sindhu 4-5 Tai Tzu Ying: The drift impact has been drastic from what we have heard so far at the venue. Sindhu up against the drift here, will have to get used to it quickly. Good shot quality early on but the lengths are not quite right. A brilliant crosscourt from PV to get the serve back and an error from TTY means it’s all very close.
Here we go then, players on court.
The reward for Sindhu’s two fine wins against Thai opponents, is now a quarterfinal clash against World No 2 Tai Tzu Ying. In the 21st meeting between the Tokyo 2020 medallists, Sindhu will be hoping to end a run of five straight defeats against Tai, who has been in impressive form lately. The former World No 1 holds a 15-5 H2H against Sindhu.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of quarterfinals day at the Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament. Two huge matches coming up for Indian shuttlers today. First up, PV Sindhu vs Dr. Tai Tzu Ying, later on HS Prannoy vs Jonatan Christie.
In the men’s singles round of 16, Prannoy stunned fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei with an incredible scoreline of 21-15, 21-7. Earlier, in the women’s singles, Sindhu had to fight back from a game down against Thailand youngster Phittayaporn Chaiwan to win 19-21 21-9 21-14 in 57 minutes.
HS Prannoy stuns world No 4 Chou Tien Chen, PV Sindhu sets up QF with Tai Tzu Ying
Screenshots in the blog courtesy BWF / Viacom 18 / Tournament Software