Hangzhou, Oct 6: India’s Haseena Sunil Kumar Prannoy won bronze after losing the semifinal 0-2 to world-ranked 7, China’s Li Shifeng in the semifinal of men’s singles Badminton with a scoreline of, 16-21, 9-21, here on Friday.
In a tough-fought battle, Prannoy looked sharp on the nets but seemed struggling with back pain and was poor in defense, as Chinese tested him with his strokes and made him bend.
Prannoy was slow on returns, and error-prone both at the net and toward lines. The first game looked like a close encounter initially, but Chinese with his hard across-the-court smash made sure of victory for himself.
Earlier, the 31-year-old registered a 21-16, 21-23, 22-20 to secure a semifinal berth and assured India’s first medal in men’s singles after Syed Modi’s bronze medal in 1982.
India’s top-ranked men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will also take the court in the semifinal later in the day.
