Prannoy battles it out in the Australian Open final to win silver

Hong Yang won the opening game 21-9 as Prannoy looked error-prone. In the second game, Prannoy opened up a 11-8 lead at the interval. At this stage, rallies became longer as both players engaged at net dribbles, and their relentless retrievals meant they had to lose extra calories to win each point.

The sign of a nail-biting finish came at the fag end of the second game when Hong Yang saved two game points even though Prannoy was on a rampage - reaching the first game point chance with an incredible backhand return and the second with a smash - as the match crossed 65 minutes.

Hong Yang would pull out one with a flat smash hit which would leave Prannoy crawling, but on the third game point at 22-21, with Hong Yang in haste to wrap up the match, Prannoy drew out an error by the Chinese youngster.

In Sydney, en route to the final, in the pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals, Prannoy had already bounced back from a game down twice - against unseeded Chi Yu Jen and top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. But Hong Yang fought his way back, forcing a remarkable turnaround in a final that will be talked about for a long time.