HS Prannoy

Prannoy Haseena Sunil Kumar is an Indian badminton player on 17th July 1992. He hails from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. He represents India internationally in the singles and doubles category.

Background

Prannoy H.S was born to Sunil Kumar and Haseena Kumar. His father is a former badminton player and All India Air Force Badminton Champion and her mother is a housewife.

Prannoy took up an interest in badminton at the age of 10. It was his father, Sunil, who encouraged him to take up the sport since he was a badminton player. He received his training from his father. Prannoy had faced rejections from the professional coaches as he wasn’t suited to play singles and insisted him shift to doubles because he was slow.

Prannoy’s badminton talent was spotted by national coach Pullela Gopichand and joined the Gopichand Badminton Academy where he received his first professional training from a former Indian badminton stalwart. Gopichand played a very crucial role in developing his game and helped him to re-establish himself.

Rise to Glory

Under the tutelage of Pullela Gopichand, Prannoy’s badminton career began to take off. Before entering the international stage in 2010, he participated and won medals in Junior and Senior National competitions.

In 2011, Prannoy won his first international medal by winning the Silver medal after losing to compatriot Sourabh Varma at the Bahrain International. After that, he took a hiatus from the game for almost 2 years to recover from the injury. In 2013, he reached the final of the Tata International Open India International where he lost to Sourabh Verma

In 2014, he bagged two National Ranking Championpionships Title – Indian Open All India Senior Badminton Ranking Tournament in Kerala and V.V. Natu Memorial All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament in Pune. That year, he reached the semi-finals of 3 Grand Prix Gold events at the India Open, Bitburger Open in Germany, and Macau Open.

In 2016, Prannoy won the Gold and Silver in Men’s Team and Men’s Singles respectively at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, followed up with a Bronze medal in Men’s Team at the Badminton Asia Team Championships.

In 2016, Prannoy was picked by Mumbai Rockets for 2 seasons to represent them in Premier Badminton League. In the 2017 PBL season, he remained undefeated throughout the tournament. For the 2018 season, he was picked by Ahmedabad Smash Masters and by Delhi Dashers for the 2019 PBL season.

In 2020, he won the Bronze medal in Men’s Team at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Manila in the Philippines.

Major Achievements

Prannoy H.S. came into the international scene when he won his international medal by bagging Silver at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore. Later in the year, he won the Bronze medal in Boys’ singles at the World Junior Badminton Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In 2014, Prannoy reached his maiden Grand Prix Gold final at the Vietnam Open and ended up as Runner-Up after losing to Indonesia’s Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka. That year, he won his first Grand Prix Gold title at the Indonesia Open by defeating the tournament and local favourite Firman Abdul Kohlik.

In 2015, at the India Super Series, Prannoy delivered one of the best performances by stunning the World No.2 Viktor Axelsen in the pre-quarters. A year later, he bagged his second Grand Prix Gold title at the Swiss Open by defeating Germany’s Marc Zwiebler.

In 2017, Prannoy became the first Indian badminton player to win the US Open Badminton Championships title by defeating the compatriot Parupalli Kashyap. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he won the Gold medal in the Mixed team event in Gold Coast, Australia. 2 weeks later, he won the Bronze medal after losing China’s Chen Long in Men’s Singles at the Asian Badminton Championships.

Prannoy is eyeing for Olympics qualification at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as he looks to break into the Top-16. As of February 2021, he’s ranked 31 in BWF rankings.