Asian Games
Asian Games Badminton: Injured HS Prannoy to miss Indian men's team's final vs China
Mithun Manjunath, who did not play in the semifinal against Korea, replaced Prannoy in the Indian team. Lakshya Sen will open India's bid for the gold medal, going up against China's Shi Yu Qi.
HS Prannoy, ranked seventh, is India's top-ranked men's singles player. (Photo credit: BAI)
HS Prannoy, the world no. 7, has been ruled out of the Indian men's badminton team's Asian Games 2023 gold medal fixture against China, the defending champion, on Sunday. The final starts at 1:30 PM Indian Standard Time today.
Mithun Manjunath, who did not feature in the semifinal against South Korea, replaced Prannoy in the Indian team.
This is the second time Prannoy will be missing the men's team event final. Last year, at the Thomas Cup, India prevailed over Indonesia sans Prannoy.
Prannoy, on Saturday, played the first match against South Korea in the semifinal and earned India a 1-0 lead with a come-from-behind 18-21, 21-16, 21-19 win over Jeon Hyeokjin. But the Indian star played the match with a heavily strapped back and struggled to play his preferred smashes.
As Prannoy, who will also compete in the individual event, has been rested, Lakshya Sen, who enjoyed a straight-game win over Lee Yungyu on Saturday dominating the match from the very onset, will open India's bid for the gold medal against Shi Yu Qi, the 2018 World Championships silver medallist. Shi was one of the key members of China's gold medal-winning team at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018.
This will be their first meeting at any event.
The men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag will play the second match of the summit clash. The world no. 3 Indian duo will go up against Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who have been in fine form this year and won the China Open Super 1000 and World Championships bronze a few weeks back.
The Chinese shuttlers also enjoy a 2-1 head-to-head record over the Indian pair. Satwik and Chirag lost to world no. 15 Kim Wonho and Na Sungseung in straight games in the semifinal.
Kidambi Srikanth, who won the thrilling decider against world no. 163 Cho Geonyeop, will go up against 23-year-old Li Shi Feng, who won the Sudirman Cup mixed team gold this year with China, in the third match of the finale.
It could be a tough ask for Srikanth against the nimble-footed world no. 8 Shi Feng. In their last meeting at the Indonesia Open this year, Shi Feng prevailed in a three-setter.
In the best-of-five fixture, Dhruv Kapila and Sai Pratheek, who replaces MR Arjun, will face off against Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi while promising youngster Manjunath runs into world no. 20 Weng Hong Yang, the Australian Open winner.
