HS Prannoy created history on October 5 (Thursday) securing India's first medal in Badminton men's singles at the Asian Games since 1982. He defeated Lee Zii Jia 21-16 21-23 22-20 in the quarterfinal that lasted a massive 78 minutes. Soon after sealing the match, he banged his fists and took off his shirt before hugging his visibly emotional coach Pullela Gopichand.
He was fighting an injury throughout the match and needed medical intervention as well. It was a rollercoaster for him in the knockout game where Prannoy fought back to win the first game after being 5-11 down. In the second game, the man squandered two match points in the second game and then saved a couple in the third to finally win the decider 22-20.
HS Prannoy was elated after creating history and also took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his happiness while not forgetting to post a picture of his shirt-throwing celebration. "Pain met passion today, and passion prevailed. Next stop: Asian Games semi-finals," he wrote.
"I'm not at all in a condition where I could say I'm 80 percent right. But I think to pull off something like this, I would give a lot of credit to myself. I think the will to fight was always there. So, I think that paid off," Prannoy said after the match. "It is affecting me. But that's how sport is. You can't be 100 percent every day. But you have to learn to pull off matches even when you're 60 or 70 percent. I think today was one of those days when I had to do that," he added. Prannoy will now face sixth seed Li Shi Feng in the semi-final at 6:30 AM IST tomorrow (October 6).
