Prannoy's return to action halted by 'rain' inside indoor badminton court

A rain delay is unusual in a top-level badminton game, especially since the games happen indoors. But that is what India's Malayali player H S Prannoy experienced during his opening game of the Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Prannoy's game against Brian Yang of Canada was halted midway due to a roof leakage. The game was halted twice, with nearly three hours lost in between as the organisers waited, possibly for the rain to subside.

"Played for 25 min, took a break for 165 min because of rain and then again played for 5 more minutes," said Prannoy after the game was suspended for the day. "Shall continue playing the same match tomorrow," posted the Thiruvananthapuram native.

Prannoy was leading 21-12, 6-3 when water trickled down on him. On Prannoy's complaint, the referee halted the game. After it resumed after a lengthy delay, Prannoy seemed to have lost a bit of momentum and was trailing 9-11 when the leakage troubled again.

Prannoy was back in action since featuring in the Paris Olympics in July-August last year. He had contracted chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease, before the Paris Games. Though he managed to recover in time and reached the round-of-16, Prannoy took a break afterwards to focus on his recovery.

Ahead of the Malaysia Open, the 32-year-old said he was prepared to 'start something new'. Prannoy won the Malaysia Masters in 2023.