HS Prannoy overcomes doubt to end title drought with Malaysia Masters victory

At the Malaysia Masters Super 500 event on Sunday, he beat China's Weng Hong Yang in the men's singles finals. "I think there are too many emotions. The last six years have been too much of a rollercoaster. I didn't expect that it will happen after six years, to be honest. I mean if you would have asked me in 2017 I don't think I would have told you that I will win in 2023. So lots of mixed emotions," Prannoy said. 

In the previous three days, he claimed, he had not slept properly. "I haven't been sleeping well for the last three days, my team was a bit worried that I am not sleeping. There was so much emotion, you are excited to come out and play in front of this beautiful crowd." 

"The draw was tough for me, I had tough matches. I had to dig deep in the four matches. It all went to the wire. It shows how much I was patient and my fitness was also decent. To beat such players is not easy. The conditions were slow and I had to hang in there and I did that. The first thing is to keep aside the competition within ourselves, the competition is with myself. I think it is really important for me to be consistent whatever I do and results will follow."

Former Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Gurusai Dutt has been Prannoy's constant companion as he searches for that big title victory. Guru believed that helping Prannoy by including a few shots in his arsenal of strokes. "He has always been consistent. He just needed that one win. Gopi sir and I felt it was around the corner. He has beaten all the top players and it was about belief," he told PTI. 

"But to try it in a match situation is tough. It comes out of the experience. People are not ready for new shots, these players play each other quite a lot, so these new strokes helped him."