Malaysia Open: HS Prannoy loses in quarterfinals

Indias HS Prannoy went down fighting to world number 7 Japanese Kodai Naraoka in a gruelling threegame quarterfinals at the Malaysia Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on FridayThe 30yearold from Kerala ran out of steam in the 84minute contest losing 1621 2119 1021 to the 21yearold Naraoka who seemed faster and fitter despite playing two long matches in the earlier roundsThis was Naraokas third win over the Indian in as many meetings He had defeated Prannoy in three games at the Singapore Open and World Tour Finals last yearPrannoy played some crisp winners and showed his delicate touch at the net to recover from the opening game reversal but his younger rival managed to keep things under control in the decider as the Indian succumbed to a heap of unforced errorsNaraoka who came into the match after knocking out home favourites second seed Lee Zii Jia in 73 minutes and Ng Tze Yong in 72 minutes showed exceptional recovery as he retrieved everything thrown at him making Prannoy work extra hard for his pointsThe opening game was level at 77 as the two displayed some breathtaking retrieving in the energysapping rallies Naroaka eked out a twopoint lead at the interval and managed to keep the pressure to earn the bragging rightsAlso readHS Prannoy enters quarterfinals of Malaysia OpenIn the second game Prannoy tried to engage his opponent in long rallies using tosses and clears and looked to finish with smashes It worked for a brief time as he led 139 but Naraoka draw parity with four straight points after the Indian committed some errorsPrannoy tried to keep the rallies tight and flat across the net but Naraoka again levelled at 1616 before moving to lead with a net kill A weak net return negated a towering smash from Prannoy as status quo was maintained at 1818However a precise return and a cross court smash in the nick of time gave the Indian two game points Prannoy sent one wide before another superb rally ended with the Japanese sending out the shuttle as the match went into the deciderPrannoy had a foot issue at the start of the third game which started on an even knell before Naraoka produced two sensational shots at the net to win a tight rally and eke out a slender 53 leadThe Japanese dominated the rallies thereafter with his variety of strokes while Prannoy erred with his line to fall five points behind at the intervalAs the match wore on Prannoys accuracy suffered as he missed the lines on both flanks allowing Naraoka to move to 146 lead The Japanese was more patient in the rallies and pounced on any little opportunity to keep moving aheadAt 717 the Indian unleashed a straight smash to break the run of points but a string of errors from a tiredlooking Prannoy handed his opponent 12 match pointsNaraoka sealed it in his third attempt with a body smashThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever