New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy on Thursday expressed his ‘irritation’ on facing fellow Indians in early stages of a competition after training against the same opponents, while admitting that not much can be done about it.
In the first round of India Open Super 750, after Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat played against each other, Prannoy locked horns with Rajawat on Thursday.
In fact, a lot of shuttlers from Japan, Chinese Taipei and China have faced each other in the ongoing tournament which has a draw of 32.
“It’s always tough to play at 750 level, you’re getting a draw like this, where three Indians are in one quarter. It’s a little irritating, to be honest,” Prannoy said after he reached the quarterfinals here.
“But that’s how the draws are sometimes and you have to take it like that. This totally depends on tournament software. We have seen a lot of Chinese also playing the first two rounds.” Last year Prannoy and Lakshya had faced each other in the early stages of Malaysia Open and India Open.
“(In the) first couple of rounds, so many Japanese were playing against each other. Obviously, when you have three to four players from the same country playing in 750 or 1000, it’s ought to happen in the draws,” he said.
“But from a player’s point of view, sometimes it’s really irritating to play your fellow players day in day out, to practice together and to come at a big stage and play again, but we can’t really do anything on the draw side.” Prannoy also heaped praise on Rajawat for the way he performed. “He has been somebody who has come up really well in the last one and a half to two years. Really happy to see somebody who is 21 playing at this level.
“I’m sure in the next 4-5 years, you’re going to see big wins from him. He is very talented and has got good skills. It’s really tough to defend against him at a lot of places. He is looking really strong.” “For me, it’s really good to have these kinds of youngsters, when we spar against each other, this kind of quality players will kind of get a lot of players in the ecosystem, more of these kinds of players,” he added.
Rajawat said he was feeling pain after hurting his ankle during the rally in the second game. “I have having pain after twisting my ankle and I was little scared also that it might aggravate. But phyios haven’t checked yet the extent of injury, so let us see,” he said.
Source: PTI News
