India's top shuttler HS Prannoy secured a place in the final of the Australian Open Super 500 2023 on Saturday, August 5. He beat Indian youngster Priyanshu Rajawat in two straight sets of 21-18, 21-12 to reach his second final of this year.
The 31-year-old badminton star from Delhi failed to progress into the finals of the last five tournaments he played in. He even failed to reach the last-four round at Japan Open and Korea Open last month having last played in the final of the Malaysia Open in May 2023.
However, he was tipped to reach the final after kicking out the world no.2 and top seed Anthony Ginting in the quarter-final round. Rajawat gave an admirable fight but Prannoy secured a 21-18 lead in the first set and then dominated the second set by 21-12.
After the game, he stated that beating the top 10 players feels satisfying and said that he is enjoying his run in the last two years. "It is very satisfying (to win) because it is always tough to play continuously against the top 10 players and beat them and if you look at the men's singles section, somebody from the 30s and 40s are also very tough these days," Prannoy said after the win.
Prannoy, ranked ninth, will face China's Weng Hong Yang in the final on Sunday. Interestingly the Indian star beat Weng in Malaysia Open 2023 final in May and will enter the game as a favourite on Sunday. Prannoy added that beating Weng in the final will be tricky but he is feeling confident of another title win.
"Last two years have been good for me, I have been consistently able to pull off matches and this year has been special and I hope I can do something similar to what I did in Malaysia," he said. "Weng is very tricky, he can play big matches. In the last six months, he has gone out there and beaten a lot of big names. So it is not easy and especially being a left-hander, he has a lot of advantage over a lot of players. But final is a final and I will go all out tomorrow."
