Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy on Sunday won the Malaysia Masters title. He won his first BWF World Tour title and also the first singles title of the year for India. Prannoy ended a six-year title drought by defeating China’s Wang Hong Yang in three games. The 30-year-old Indian registered a 21-19 13-21 21-18 win against world No. 34 Weng Hong Yang of China, the 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist, that lasted 94 minutes.
World No. 9 Prannoy reached the final after his rival Kristian Adinata of Indonesia pulled out of the game with a knee injury. Prannoy was leading 19-17 when Adinata lost her footing while landing on a return and twisted her left knee and the Indonesian shuttler groaned in pain.
Over the last two years, Prannoy has been the most consistent Indian player on the circuit and yet he hasn’t been able to weave it all together in a week to win a major title at BWF World Tour events. All his hard work paid off on Sunday as world number nine Prannoy broke the illusion with a spirited performance in a tussle against the 23-year-old from China.
When it comes to PV Sindhu, she could not make it to the women’s singles final after losing 14-21 17-21 to Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the semi-finals. This is Sindhu’s second consecutive loss after seven wins against Mariska.
Earlier, Srikanth Kidambi suffered a disappointing defeat against Indonesia’s Kristian Adinata in the quarterfinals. Kidambi took a confident lead by winning the first set 21-16, but Adinata dominated the second set 16-21 and the third set 11-21 to finish the match in just 57 minutes. Another shuttler, Lakshya Sen, lost to Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long and was eliminated in the round of 16. He ended his campaign with a straight sets loss against Angus 14–21, 19–21.