Stadium roof leaks during HS Prannoy match in Malaysia Open, bizarre scenes halt play – Watch

By admin On Jan 7, 2025

Jan 07, 2025 04:32 PM IST

Malaysia Open: HS Prannoy’s match was halted due to a stadium roof leak.

Malaysia Open Super 1000 witnessed bizarre scenes on Tuesday. First-round matches on Court 2 and Court 3 were halted after splotches of water started falling from the roof at the Kuala Lumpur venue. The Malaysia Open Super 1000 is 2025’s first big badminton event. India shuttler HS Prannoy’s match was also affected after water pooled up on his left frontcourt near the net on Court 3.

Malaysia Open: HS Prannoy’s match was halted for over two hours after the stadium roof leaked. (Screengrab – X )

At that stage, HS Prannoy led against the Canadian Brian Yang 21-12, 6-3 in the second game. In the second game, HS Prannoy was seen gesturing towards the chair umpire, seemingly saying that the court was getting risky as larger splotches were forming.

The splotches were formed on the area where a right-handed player would basically play his backhand lunge. Prannoy’s coach, Gurusaidutt, was also seen getting quite animated as he warned the player of the potential risk.

The referee arrived on the court soon and both players left after 25 minutes. The organising members were seen inspecting the leak.

Earlier, there were problems when Yang played on the farther side. However, the play did not stop then as courtside officials mopped up the court.

HS Prannoy’s match finally resumed around 4:15 PM IST. However, soon after, the match was halted again due to the same issue. Yang was leading 11-9 in the second game when another interruption was caused.

Court 2 has more pressing problems

The situation was grimmer in Court 2. The officials were seen carrying multiple towels to mop up the court. Chinese Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian were leading the home pair of Go Pei Kee and Teoh Mei Xing 11-10 when play had to be stopped.

Earlier on Tuesday, India’s women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai 21-10, 21-10 in just 30 minutes to enter the round of 16.

Later in the day, India’s Lakshya Sen will take on Taiwan’s Y Chi. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will open their campaign on Wednesday against K Tang and MC Lu of Taiwan.