India’s HS Prannoy came from a game down to beat Qiao Bin of China 17-21, 22-20, 21-19 in a hard-fought first round men’s singles clash of the All England Badminton Open on Wednesday.
In a tense contest that saw both players fight tooth and nail, the Chinese player took the lead after winning the first game 21-17.
The world No 21 came back strongly in the second, as the momentum kept shifting from one player to the other. The game was stretched into the tie-breaker after Qiao fended off five game points to stretch Prannoy. The Indian though kept his cool and took the game 22-20 to take the tie into the third game.
Qiao put Prannoy under pressure in the third game with five consecutive points soon after the change of ends to take an 18-13 lead. Prannoy though took the fight to Qiao and made a dramatic comeback to take the game 21-19 and progress to the second round.