Thomas Cup 2024: HS Prannoy Says, Now I Know What To Focus On In Training

The 31-year-old from Kerala, who will be representing India at the Paris Olympics, has been suffering from a 🌃stomach issue, which was similar to acid reflux that he suffered in 2018-2019. It caused nausea and vomiting and also caused him to lose four kilograms in the last couple of months.

At the Thomas Cup, Prannoy defeated Indonesia's Anthony Ginting on Wednesday and also registered a win ag🍌ai🏅nst England's Harry Huang earlier in the tournament. He played a close match against world no. 2 Shi Yu Qi of China on Thursday.

"I fought hard and I think tha🍒t's what matters and for me, that's what mattered straightꦅ from the first day."

"The idea was to not let go of things easily and to fight until the last point,♏" Prannoy said after losing 21-15 11-21 14-21 to Shi Yu Qi as India went down 1-3 to China to end their campaign at the quarterfinal stage.

"Probab🔯ly I did that but I would say a lot of learning from this match as well to know where the top players are playing and what are the areas they're good at."

"Probably I was not able to play the𒊎se kinds of matches the last four months. So to get this kind of matches is a bonus right now and to kind of know what to focus on in training."

Talking about his opponent, Prannoy said: "Obꦯviously, he is in some good nick at the moment, given his success on the tour."

"Someone like Shi Yu Qi can find lines from any corner of the court, you have to def🍰end well. I think I did that for the most part of the match, the entire match I think. You have🦩 to give it to him, no matter what the situation is."

"From an overall game per♔spective, I think the important thing was to keep up the pace, to make him move around and tire him. I think the third game's first half was the  key over there where I had a little bit more chance to kind of open up the game and play."

"But I was a little bit more ner🦄vous lifting because he was hitting well from both the sides so that got in the way so that game didn't work out.🦹"

Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also endured a tough day as they lost 15-21 21-ꦫ11 12-21 to world no.1 Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the first men's doubles.

It was their second loss in two days and the Indian pair sꦉaid it𒁏 will comeback stronger.

The match was dominated by short and snappy rallies with Liang and Wang mounting a fast attack rigꦅht from the word go.

"The rallies were quite short. Whenever we played longer rallies, we wer🐈e scoring points but it was a service receiving game right from the second game and we won that. I think it was more like who's dominating in the first three shots," Chirag said.

"We just kept pushing ourselves even though we were not playin𒈔g to the best of our abilities. But if you want to beat them, you have to play at a much better level than this. We'll take a lot of learning from this and come back stronger."

Satwik said the first four shots are extremely imp🅷ortant if oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚne has to beat these top pairs and they will need to go back to the drawing board to sort out the issue.

"I feel both games are the same. Whoever keeps on attacking, wins the match. So it's quite simple. Wh🥃oever controls the net, wins the match. In th🌳e second game, we controlled the net, and we won," Satwik said.

"First game they controlled...it was very quick there like in five🌱 seconds we lost two points. It was not about the rally, in ten minutes, it was 11-4. I wanted to play more, I wanted some rallies but how?

"It ha💟ppened with the Indonesians as well. They're quite good in service and receiving, maybe we should go back and talk to our coach and sit down. It's not about rallies, it's about the first four shots. We have 🍸to work more."

"When we did that well🌳, we won many tournaments and I think it's a good tournament for us, not to doubt ourselves, but a little bit of lack of confidence. We go back and we have time for the next tou🐎rnament," Satwik added.