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Matches (live on JioCinema in India):
- PV Sindhu 14-21, 17-21 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung
- HS Prannoy 19-17 (retd) Christian Adinata
That will be all for this blog. HS Prannoy will take on China’s Weng Hong Yang in the final on Sunday, join us then.
India’s Prannoy HS reached the Malaysia Masters final after an unfortunate injury to Indonesia’s Christian Adinata in the first game, the scoreline was 19-17 with Prannoy in the lead. This will be Prannoy’s first final since the Swiss Open 2022 .
Sindhu’s run, meanwhile, ended in the semifinals as she lost for the second straight time against Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.
Highlights of Sindhu’s defeat:
Men’s singles: It will be HS Prannoy vs Weng Hong Yang in the final on Sunday. The Chinese left-hander is a tricky, aggressive player. Had won Korea Open last year on a super run. Prannoy will start favourite on paper, higher-ranked and all but it won’t be easy. It will be their first meeting.
MS semifinal: Weng Hong Yang prevails in just less than an hour.
MS semifinal: Chinese left-hander Weng Hong Yang is on the verge of winning this all-left battle.
MS semifinal: The match to determine Prannoy’s opponent is underway.
Invariably in any sport, there will be players who need no introduction to even non-regular followers. Athletes who transcend the sport. For badminton, starting from the early 2000s, that role was performed by Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei. Two men who brought the best out of each other, but also elevated the sport overall for the near two decades they went up against each other.
And so it is fitting that their BWF Hall of Fame induction (never in doubt), is happening together on 26 May 2023.
From an Indian perspective, one person who is placed very well to speak about the greatness of the two superstars is HS Prannoy. The current world No 9 is the only Indian to beat both Lin and Lee more than once (he defeated them twice each).
Men’s singles semifinals: Both Gurusaidutt and Prannoy with plenty of concern for Adinata. Prannoy knows more than a thing or two about dealing with injuries over his long career, must have felt a great deal of empathy here. Tough.
Men’s singles semifinals: HS Prannoy will face the winner of LIN Chun-Yi vs WENG Hong Yang, both unseeded players, who have had pretty special weeks themselves.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata (retd) 17-19 HS Prannoy: That’s the end of the match. Christian Adinata is taken off the court in a wheelchair, in tears. HS Prannoy helps him up, gives him and the coach a hug.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 17-19 HS Prannoy: Oh dear, this is horrific. Adinata’s left knee has buckled while trying to change directions. That is the end of the match, I am certain. He is in big pain.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 17-18 HS Prannoy: Adinata with an error in judgement as he goes for a shuttle that was heading out and nets the backhand too. Costly.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 16-17 HS Prannoy: Couple of good forehand side smashes from Prannoy. Inching ahead.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 16-16 HS Prannoy: Score corrected, from 15-15 Prannoy moved ahead. Now it is back level as a smash from HSP is called wide. But Adinata needs treatment now for a dive.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 15-16 HS Prannoy: Prannoy with a big roar after a superb net tap. Desperately needed that point.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 14-15 HS Prannoy: Punishing rally, and looks like Adinata has won this point too. Yes he has, review no good from HSP. One point game!
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 13-15 HS Prannoy: Prannoy misses a kill at the net. Two points only in this.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 11-14 HS Prannoy: Adinata definitely on the charge here. Superb whipped forehand winner.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 8-14 HS Prannoy: There is another superb inside-out smash and Prannoy lets out a roar to egg himself up.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 7-13 HS Prannoy: The rallies are getting longer and Prannoy starting to make a few errors as well. Adinata back in this. And as I say that, a roar from Prannoy after a missed net shot by Adinata.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 4-12 HS Prannoy: The Indonesian started slow against Srikanth too mind you, got better as the match went on. The rallies are definitely getting better here.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 1-11 HS Prannoy: 11-1 to start the match for Prannoy in just 5 mins. After the week he has had, that must almost feel weird.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 1-8 HS Prannoy: Great run of points for Prannoy, ends at 7. He gets the serve back right away too. Solid from the Indian so far.
Men’s singles semifinals, Christian Adinata 0-3 HS Prannoy: Good start for Prannoy. He’d dearly love to avoid a marathon today, I imagine
- Time for Christian Adinata vs HS Prannoy
HS Prannoy time: His week so far...
64-min, 3-games win vs Chou Tien Chen
70-min, 3-games win vs Li Shi Feng
91-min, 3-games win vs Kenta Nishimoto
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 17-21 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: And a nice rally ends with an error from Sindhu at the net. Relief for Tunjung, she was getting a bit tense at the end. Could have been tricky. And she now wins two on the trot vs Sindhu after losing seven straight.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 17-20 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: An error on the return from Tunjung.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 16-20 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: A really good net shot sets up a short lift for Sindhu and she closes it out.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 15-20 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: At least it is not a 14-21 14-21 like 8-21 8-21 last time. Sindhu saves one match point.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 14-20 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Another error from Sindhu. Match points GMT.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 14-19 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Another nice long rally, with both players pushing each other back and forth, but the point ends with a Sindhu error on a clear and reviews lost.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 13-16 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: After a rare good review, Sindhu plays a superb rally (hanging in defensively) and then flooring Tunjung. Too late? Tunjung is starting to show signs of tiredness.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 11-16 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: I don’t see how Sindhu recovers from here. The points she is getting too are mostly Tunjung’s errors. Actually, in the last couple of points, she is making errors too.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 9-11 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: The shuttle lands in from a Tunjung lift. And the Indonesian has a 2-point lead at the interval. Needs a big push here, Sindhu. Otherwise this is going to be over soon.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 9-10 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Coach Vidhi is asking Sindhu to stay patient, and it is starting to have some impact. The gap is back down to 1.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 6-8 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Despite the injury, despite having to work hard, you feel the game is still on Tunjung’s racket. Sindhu is only reacting.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21, 5-5 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: After a good start to game 2, Sindhu looking a bit more confident. Coach is heard saying “zor se maarne ki koshish karegi ab, be alert be alert” but Tunjung plays two points of only soft drops to win the next two points. Some attention on Tunjung’s elbow here.
Here’s how game 1 unfolded:
WS SF, PV Sindhu 14-21 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Sindhu led 12-10 at one point. Tunjung let her win only 2 points after that. Unreal comeback.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 13-19 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: One of the worrying recent trends with Sindhu is how she has phases in the match when her opponent goes on a run of points and she struggles for a decisive period to lose momentum. She hasn’t been able to arrest the slide, and if that is not a coaching problem I don’t know what is.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 12-14 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: And there she is. A combination of drops and decisive punch clears and in no time, Tunjung is back in the lead.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 11-8 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: 9-7 Sindhu. Already better than her tallies in her last match against Tunjung (8-21 8-21). The Indian takes a good lead into the interval with a good body attack.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 7-7 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: A look at the weeks these two have had so far. Tunjung has breezed through some tough tests, she is really going from strength to strength.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 6-6 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: GMT dominated from the word go in that final in Madrid but Sindhu has started better here, good control in her play. Using the steepness that her height gives her well. But still, Tunjung is having joy again with her drops.
WS SF, PV Sindhu 3-3 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Sindhu with three points to start, GMT with three points to follow.
Women’s singles semifinal, PV Sindhu vs Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Here we go then, PV Sindhu time. She takes on Tunjung in the repeat of the Madrid Masters final. Tunjung won 21-8, 21-8.
Their 211-shot rally in the round of 16 has now gone viral (as it should).
In today’s semifinal against Kim/Jeong, Tan/Thinaah have so far been involved in:
186-shot rally
151-shot rally
160-shot rally
Women’s doubles: Petition to put up mega-sized billboards outside Axiata Arena for Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan after this week. WHAT A MARATHON AGAIN!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Indian badminton on BWF World Tour.
Today our attention is on Malaysia Masters, the Super 500 event on the World Tour in Kuala Lumpur. It’s Semifinals Saturday and there are two Indian matches to keep an eye on.
PV Sindhu won her quarter-final tie in a thrilling match against Zhang Yi Man of China 21-16, 13-21, 22-20. She will face Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the semis in a rematch of the Madrid Masters final that the latter won.
Prannoy continued his brilliant run in BWF World Tour Super 500 Event as he defeated Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 25-23, 18-21, 21-13 in the quarter finals and moved into the semifinals where he will face Christian Adinata of Indonesia, who defeated Srikanth earlier.