BAI announces cash reward of 5 lakh for Prannoy

BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta today heaped praise on H S Prannoy for clinching the men's singles title at the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold and announced a cash award of Rs 5 lakhs for his stupendous performance at Basel last week.
Prannoy saw off seventh seed Marc Zwiebler of Germany 21-18 21-15 in the summit clash last night. Last year, it was India's Kidambi Srikanth who had clinched the title.
"This is a proof of increasing competitiveness among the Indian players and an inheritance of global standards uplifting the Indian badminton," Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta said.
"It is yet another feather to the cap of Indian Badminton Players who are constantly displaying their command and portraying their authoritative abilities on the game all over the world."

After winning his second Grand Prix Gold title, Prannoy said: "I am extremely happy to win this title. This should take me to the 20th spot in world ranking and I would like to give Olympics qualification one more effort by playing well in the next tournaments before the May deadline.
"It won't be easy because I hardly have any time to rest or practice. In a week, I will be playing at the Indian Open Super Series and then I will play the Malaysia Super Series instead of the Senior Nationals as I wanted to give myself maximum chance to qualify for Rio.

"It will be physically tough but good thing is my confidence is up after this win. I am not thinking much about these tournaments though, I just want to concentrate on the first match and then the next. Hope God helps me," added the 23-year-old, who won the Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold in 2014.