Australian Open Highlights: Weng Hong Yang clinched his maiden title of the year at the Australian Open 2023 on Sunday, 6th August. The unseeded Chinese defeated World No.9 HS Prannoy 21-9, 21-23, 22-20 in a thrilling encounter. With the win, he also avenged his Malaysian Masters final loss against Prannoy earlier this year.
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Prannoy found it hard to claim points and ended up losing the first game by 21-9. The drastic difference in the first game indicated that the Chinese shuttler would walk away with an easy victory in the finals.
But Prannoy fought back with a different swagger in his game and bounced back to bring the game back to parity at 23-21. Prannoy used most of the momentum from the second game and led the third game for the majority of the time. He had a two-point lead advantage with the score reading 19-17.
In the second game, the Chinese shuttler took the momentum and looked to be cruising but Prannoy came back into the game and managed to take a three-point lead into the break. Yang, though, hit right back to draw level at 15-15, setting up a scramble to the finish line.
The momentum swung constantly between the two finalists before the Indian just about edged the thriller of a game to set up a decider.
After a tight start to the deciding game, Prannoy began to pull away and made full use of the young Chinese player’s unforced errors to build up a 19-14 lead. However, Yang dug deep and picked up five consecutive points to draw parity.
A 71-shot rally when the score was 19-18 turned the tide in the Chinese player’s favour. Under pressure, Prannoy squandered a championship point before eventually conceding the 90-minute-long marathon contest. It was Yang’s first win over the Indian.
Next up on the badminton calendar is the world championships, starting August 21 in Copenhagen
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