US Open title: HS Prannoy beats Indian mate P Kashyap in the final’s.

Indian Shuttler and world no.23 HS Prannoy beat Indian mate Parupalli Kashyap in the final of the US Open Grand Prix Gold in Anaheim on Sunday. This is his third grand prix gold title to win his third Grand Prix Gold title. This is Prannoy’s first final since playing and clinching the Swiss Open final last year.

Prannoy beat Kashyap 21-15, 22-20, 21-12 to guarantee the title in a match that endured 65 minutes. After the win, the champion tweeted, “Feels great to win this one, #USAGPG champion 2017! Defeated my academy mate @parupallik in a tough battle. Thank you all for your support!”

Prannoy had found a place in the final after defeating Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen, while Kashyap overcame Korean Kwang Hee Heo in the semi-finals.

“It was a good match, pretty intense match, a high quality match by both me and Kashyap. I think after losing the second game narrowly, I was calm and patient enough and it worked for me,” said Prannoy. “In second game, Kashyap was playing better than the first game. He was putting a lot of pressure on net and he was also finishing the lifts that I was producing, that made the whole difference.

“But in the third game, I changed my strategy a bit and I had a good lead. So yeah, overall happy with the tournament. Now I am looking forward to New Zealand Open,” he added.

It has been a good year for the Indian badminton players as last month; Srikanth Kidambi created history by becoming the first Indian to win two successive Super series titles and by entering three consecutive finals at the Indonesian Open, Singapore Open, and the Australian Open.