Australian Open: Prannoy will have to master the art of dreary rallies at Paris 2024, as Naraoka outlasts him in draining QF

At its core, the prevalent men’s singles playing style in badminton is deadly dull and ponderous. Short rallies with slam-bang kills, raining down monster smashes or alternately the stamina-testing ho-hum of unvarying retrieving, waiting for the opponent to blink if you aren’t smacking an impetuous error sooner instead.

HS Prannoy was born to construct creative, clever repartees with back and forths in rallies. But he is forced to finish second-best to Kodai Naraoka in a tossed-up, typical Groundhog Day game.

The Japanese World No 2 operates in a monotonous, unblinking zone and his superpower is telling himself there’s no ennui in his relentless, blinkered returning, match after match, tournament after tournament. Even his coach’s instructions start-to-end were to simply keep switching flanks, left, right, left, and wear down the opponent in that humdrum haze.

End of India’s campaign at #AustraliaOpen2024.

📸: @badmintonphoto#Badminton pic.twitter.com/nrGcbvRA19

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 14, 2024

Prannoy’s 19-21, 13-21 loss took 62 minutes, after being sucked into rallies where he arrived with a start-up’s energy to innovate, and Kodai logged a 9-to-5 shift of dreary paperwork instead. Doing bare minimum to win takes talent, commonly called bottomless patience and unglamorous consistency which took Kodai to the World Championship finals. A few speedy follow-ups at the net aside, nothing else changes.

But Prannoy will need to head into Olympics knowing most of his opponents can win in this fashion – without seeming to do anything spectacular, just chip away at his endurance and keep the shuttle in play. The young ones like Kodai, Kunlavut and Lakshya Sen can’t even be provoked into contentious confrontations like Viktor Axelsen. They play like they have nothing to lose, aren’t fussed with pressure, and merely shrug and get on with retrieving, till they locate an opportunity to pounce and kill the shuttle, expending little aggression till that moment.

Dragging them into a 19-19 decider situation might bring Prannoy’s creative cult deceptions into play. The Indian even came back from 10-16 down to level at 19-19 against Kodai in Set 1 on the day. But the Japanese had exactly two aggressive exchanges at the net and from a charging smash, and edged the opener 21-19 with two those rationed forays.

Prannoy asking for a spray down his spine and clutching the back after landing post a jump smash, was an additional worrying extra baggage.

As such, the Indian never got going first-up, drawn wide into errors because Kodai sent everything back his way. He wasn’t sharpest from the front court at the outset, though a 48-shot rally he won at 7-8 gave him confidence to hang in there. He would creatively think up angles and skills and set-ups, before Kodai absorbed them all, and pinged the decisive winner, all of Prannoy’s flair through a rally gone to waste.

Nothing highlights the contrast between the efficient Kodai and the entertaining Prannoy better than their respective backhands. Prannoy has wild variety on the backie, but at the age of 32, he’s constricted in torquing up power into those pretty-looking shots, and refrains from indulging them. Kodai is fit at 23, and has the one stock backhand – albeit a tough one to pull off – the flat, down-the-line on a pivot that travels straight and deep into opponent territory. It saves him retrieving seconds, and helps efficient court movement. It took him to lead the opener 16-10.

Prannoy though, went from 10-16 to 18-18 by drawing Kodai forward and engaging him at the net. When sharp, the Indian can tie opponents in mental knots at the net and finish with a still-stinging straight smash, nailing the lines as he did at 19-18. Being blitzed at the endgame in the first set, deflated him however, and the back was acting up by the time he folded in the second.

His defensive monotony where you can quickly reheat a cup of tea in the microwave for 30 seconds, and return to find Kodai sending his dozenth toss high and to the backline, means he induces dreary decider vibes in the second set itself. Prannoy’s endurance numbers might be shabby at this stage of Olympics preparation, but it was more the back that seemed to stop him from snapping out of the tiresome rallies. At the Olympics he will have to negotiate the boring far more than the bombasts where he can turn the tables better with his creative brains.

Well played champ, onwards and upwards from here.

📸: @badmintonphoto#AustraliaOpen2024 #Badminton pic.twitter.com/oh1zKyNbIz

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 14, 2024

Sameer outpaced

Earlier in the day, after a good win against Loh Kean Yew, Sameer Verma faltered against Lin Chun-Yi 21-12, 21-13, as he couldn’t withstand the flood of winners the Taiwanese unleashed his way.

Verma took the lead for exactly one point in the whole match, at 4-3 in the opener and was otherwise trailing the fast, attacking Lin throughout the game. Lin took control of the net and Verma didn’t look too sharp on the dribbles anyway. But it was Lin’s whizzing cross smashes to which Verma had no answers at all, as the speed swept him away.

Verma tried closing the gap at 10-13, but in a reverse of yesterday’s match, conceded 7 points straight as his defense fell apart on the day. Lin’s accuracy and pace gave Verma no sniff of a return in the second at all, and after gifting a horrendous lift at 12-17, Lin blew him away in 38 short minutes.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.