Thailand Open: Prannoy battles chest, shoulder pain to stun Christie

Prannoy recovered from a game down to beat sixth seed Christie 18-21 21-16 23-21 in a match that lasted an hour and 15 minutes.

Bangkok: India’s HS Prannoy battled pain in his ribs and a potential dislocation on his left shoulder to stun Indonesia’s world number seven Jonathan Christie in the first round of the Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 badminton tournament on Wednesday.

Prannoy recovered from a game down to beat sixth seed Christie 18-21 21-16 23-21 in a match that lasted an hour and 15 minutes.

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Prannoy had been diagnosed with Covid-19 two months ago and said after the match that the pain in his rib cage was due to a muscle strain caused by coughing continuously. The shoulder pain came from a fall during a rally that gave Christie match point. However, he fought back from that position and went all the way to win the match.

“I haven’t practised the last five days. The rib has been paining pretty badly post-Covid, but we’ve been trying all sorts of things (to heal it). Probably it got inflamed and the muscles inside are strained because I had continuous cough. I’ll have to go back and check. There’s been no practice at all,” said Prannoy.

About his shoulder, Prannoy said he felt it getting dislocated but it fell back in place. “I thought it went off but luckily it fell back in place. I thought the fall was bad; hopefully nothing will happen. But these things might start hurting after a few hours,” he said.

This was Prannoy’s first win against Christie in five attempts.

Meanwhile, women’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 21-11, 21-19 to Germany’s Linda Efler and Isable Herttrich.

World championship bronze medallist Sai Praneeth was forced to withdraw from his first round match against Malaysia’s Daren Lew, and the rest of the tournament, after testing positive for Covid-19. Former world no.1 Kidambi Srikanth, who was set to play his second round match against Denmark’s Anders Antonsen on Thursday, also had to withdraw and go into quarantine as he was in close contact with Praneeth.