BWF World Championships 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark Aug 21st-27th 2023

[sameerph]

Prannoy leads 11-6 in third game.

Cmon.

[Dinesh]

Wow! I caught the last few intense points. 21-16 in the end. Good job, Prannoy!

[sameerph]

Yes, what a fantastic win by Prannoy humbling world #1 and reginging world champion on his home turf.

[QF] (9) H.S. Prannoy (IND,9) d. Victor Axelsen (DEN,1) 13-21 21-15 21-16

And our 12 year medal winning streak somehow remains intact.

[Omkara]

[sameerph]

So, reproducing our medal winning streak sequence at world championships and Olympics-

2011 Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa Bronze
2012 Saina Nahwal Bronze
2013 PV Sindhu Bronze
2014 PV Sindhu Bronze
2015 Saina Nehwal
2016 PV Sindhu Silver
2017 PV Sindhu Silver
Saina Nehwal Bronze
2018 PV Sindhu Silver
2019 PV Sindhu Gold
B Sai Praneeth Bronze
2020 PV Sindhu Bronze
2021 Kidambi Srikanth Siliver
Lakshya Sen Bronze
2022 Chirag Shetty / Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Bronze
2023 HS Prannoy - medal color to be determined

So, 16 medals in 13 years with at least 1 in each event.

[srini]

A MUST watch match and if anyone missed it live,i would recommend watching the recording. This game had everything that badminton can offer.. awesome net play, deception, spontaneous defense of smashes, grit all in play.

Prannoy knew he had to raise his games several notches above and he did just that. From his previous matches with Prannoy, Victor also knew if anyone in the world can block him from title that would be Prannoy, so he was not taking any chances from the word go. I could see Prannoy added a lot of new dimension to his game that i never saw before. He used to just move the shuttle as far from the opponent as he could in most of the other matches. But for this match he had a game plan, one which was better than what Victor also had, and executed that to perfection. In his last S-500 final with the Chinese guy we saw he frittered away a 4 match point advantage and lost. No such hiccups this time and he smoothly finished it in front of Axelsen's home crowd. He ensured a medal already but I think he deserves to go on and become world champion this time, but we have seen Prannoy winning over higher ranked opponents only to throw away the next match to a lesser opponent. Hoping we are not that seeing the Prannoy anymore now, @31 years he is still learning and improving...one of those late bloomers!

[rajitghosh]

Prannoy meets Vitidsarn next. Again not an easy opponent. He needs to raise his game.

[Atithee]

Do both semi-finalists get a bronze at WC too?

[arjun2761]

Not sure that they actually get bronze medals or gold or silver for that matter. But there is no 3rd place match, so it is the equivalent of both losing SFs getting bronze medals.

[rajitghosh]

They get proper medals

[Sin Hombre]

Huge kudos to Prannoy to keep our medal run going.

He is also now in India's top-3 male badminton players ever behind Padukone and Srikanth with two very impressive elite tournament performances (he won every match in India's greatest achievement in badminton, the 2022 Thomas cup win; and now a WC medal).

Do both semi-finalists get a bronze at WC too?

That's only the case at WC, the Olympics has a 3rd place match.

[srini]

Do both semi-finalists get a bronze at WC too?

Yes. Both the losing semi finalists get a bronze. There is no bronze medal playoff in world championship for badminton(there is one in Olympics though for same event!)

[Atithee]

Thank you to all who responded to my query. I didn’t remember that Olympics awards only one bronze model.

[SaniaFan]

It does. I remember Saina won the bronze when she beat Xin Wang in playoff as Xin retired due to injury after winning the first game.

[SaniaFan]

A MUST watch match and if anyone missed it live,i would recommend watching the recording.

Absolutely. Its a match for coaching manuals for strategy and something all budding players should watch.

- I thought after second the game Pranoy was totally spent and may lose the third tamely. Gopi and the other coach was telling him so much but it appeared he was not listening anything. But now I get that he was in a zone(almost possessed).
- I have never seen Gopi that animated during the game. He was jumping out of his chair during the match. I think the coaching team and Pranoy had prepared extensively for this match and they could see their plan going well.
- Axelson is wary of Pranoy. I think Pranoy is the only player he is uncomfortable against. During the mid game break of 2nd game, Axelson was heard asking his coaches "He is able to read my aggressive game. What should I do?" His coach asked him to stick to their plan. SO clearly he was rattled by Pranoy.

I also hope that Pranoy goes all the way here. He really deserves it.