HS Prannoy finds it 'irritating' to face Indian peers early in tournaments

NEW DELHI: Prominent Indian badminton player HS Prannoy on Thursday conveyed his 'frustration' about encountering fellow Indians in the initial rounds of a competition, particularly after having trained against the same opponents. He acknowledged the inevitability of the situation, noting that there isn't much that can be done to avoid such matchups.


During the first round of the India Open Super 750, following a match between Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat, Prannoy found himself in a competitive face-off with Rajawat on the same day.

Interestingly, several badminton players from Japan, Chinese Taipei, and China have also found themselves pitted against each other in the ongoing tournament, given its 32-participant draw.

"It's always tough to play at 750 level, you're getting a draw like this, where three Indians are in one quarter. It's a little irritating, to be honest," Prannoy said after he reached the quarterfinals here.

"But that's how the draws are sometimes and you have to take it like that. This totally depends on tournament software. We have seen a lot of Chinese also playing the first two rounds."

Last year Prannoy and Lakshya had faced each other in the early stages of Malaysia Open and India Open.

"(In the) first couple of rounds, so many Japanese were playing against each other. Obviously, when you have three to four players from the same country playing in 750 or 1000, it's ought to happen in the draws," he said.

"But from a player's point of view, sometimes it's really irritating to play your fellow players day in day out, to practice together and to come at a big stage and play again, but we can't really do anything on the draw side."

Prannoy also heaped praise on Rajawat for the way he performed. "He has been somebody who has come up really well in the last one and a half to two years. Really happy to see somebody who is 21 playing at this level.

"I'm sure in the next 4-5 years, you're going to see big wins from him. He is very talented and has got good skills. It's really tough to defend against him at a lot of places. He is looking really strong."

"For me, it's really good to have these kinds of youngsters, when we spar against each other, this kind of quality players will kind of get a lot of players in the ecosystem, more of these kinds of players," he added.

Rajawat said he was feeling pain after hurting his ankle during the rally in the second game. "I have having pain after twisting my ankle and I was little scared also that it might aggravate. But phyios haven't checked yet the extent of injury, so let us see," he said.


(With inputs from PTI)