Indian badminton's Comeback Man overcomes injury battle to clinch first major, beating countryman Kashyap in US GP
HSâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Prannoy
HS Prannoy notched up a thrilling three-game win over Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap in an all-Indian final to clinch the USD 120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold here.
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Prannoy, who lost a fair amount of his time to nagging injuries in his career, dished out a gritty performance to defeat Kashyap 21-15, 20-22, 21-12 in the summit clash which lasted an hour and five minutes.
HSâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Prannoy
"It was a good match, pretty intense match, a high quality match by both me and Kashyap. I think after losing the second game narrowly, I was calm and patient enough and it worked for me," said Prannoy.
"In second game, Kashyap was playing better than the first game. He was putting a lot of pressure on net and he was also finishing the lifts that I was producing, that made the whole difference.
Parupalli Kashyap
"But in the third game, I changed my strategy a bit and I had a good lead. So yeah, overall happy with the tournament. Now I am looking forward to New Zealand Open," he added.
The duo, who had a 1-1 head-to-head record having played each other at the 2014 German Open last time, engaged in fast-paced rallies and Prannoy more often sealed the rallies with his powerful smashes.