KASHYAP AND PRANNOY MAKES IT AN ALL INDIAN FINAL AT US OPEN

US Open Grand Prix Gold- PRANNOY WILL TAKE ON KASHYAP TO MAKE IT AN ALL INDIAN AFFAIR

It’s an all India final in the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold, where Parupalli Kashyap will  face compatriot, H.S. Prannoy in the finals, in the year that is turning out to be exceptionally dominant for the Indian shutters who seem to have improved a lot in the last two years to defeat the best in the world.

ALL INDIA FINAL AT US OPEN ( PRANNOY AND KASHYAP )

Kashyap who is now 30 years old was the lone torch bearer of the Indian field for a very long time without any quality sparring partner, has now found that in the trio of Srikanth, Prannoy and Sai Praneeth who are nearly 24 years old, who have helped each other to improve tremendously while the youngsters seem to have been taking tips from kashyap given his vast experience of playing in the circuit for so long.



READ | US OPEN GRAND PRIX: KASHYAP STUNS TOP SEED LEE HYUN



It’s still 3 years for the Olympics but till then the way these big 4 of Indian badminton are going about, they could reach dizzying heights in terms of rankings and sponsorship that they could make this sport reach the top in India.

Second seed Prannoy took just 40 minutes to beat Vietnamese 15th seed Tien Minh Nguyen 21-14, 21-19, who had previously lost to the former bronze medalist when they last met.

Kashyap, on the other hand, had to work hard for his victory against the South Korean Kwang Hee Heo who is relatively unknown and therefore not much about his playing style and range was something kashyap could prepare well for. Kashyap dropped the first set, but came back strong to win the match 15-21, 21-16, 21-15 in a marathon match that lasted an hour and six minutes.



It has been a good half year for the Indians with four different players returning with four Grand Prix titles in 2017- Saina Nehwal(Malaysia Masters), PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma(Syed Modi International), B Sai Praneeth(Thailand Open). Come this title, it will be fifth grand prix title for India this year and again this time it would be a new winner- Kashyap or Prannoy.



Kashyap will face his friend Prannoy in the final of the $120,000 event. They both have met only twice before once in 2010 and 2014 with both winning one each.

This one promises to be a mouth watering clash.



Go India!!!!



The author is a sports enthusiast who also runs a literature and cultural website Wordbred.com