HS Prannoy's victory celebrations were surprisingly muted at the Indonesia Open on Thursday. He raised his arms and smiled only briefly.
This was not a particularly obvious choice. The 24-year-old was playing only his second match since making his return to the international circuit after a nearly three-month-long break. More significantly, he had just pulled off the upset of the tournament, beating Lee Chong Wei 21-10, 21-18 in exactly 40 minutes. The world No.3 from Malaysia had won the tournament six times in the last nine editions in which he had participated here.
This was only the second time an Indian had beaten him. The first instance - a grueling hour-long battle - had been in early 2016, when Chong Wei was himself making a return from a dope ban, against B Sai Praneeth. It certainly wasn't the 40-minute demolition job Prannoy pulled off. And perhaps there lay a clue as to why Prannoy didn't seem particularly thrilled about the win.
"It wasn't the hardest match to win. I've played a lot harder matches. Today I didn't really feel that I was in a fight," he told ESPN over the phone from Jakarta.
It certainly wasn't as tough as the 71-minute, three-set slugfest against the legendary Lin Dan at the 2015 French Open.
"I'd still rate the Lin Dan match far higher than this one," he says. "The one against Lin Dan was far harder. Back then, he was really trying his hardest to win. It was an extremely physical game. I had to put everything I had on the court to win."
The victory against Lin, who along with Chong Wei had been one of the pillars of world badminton over the last decade, was only the third by an Indian after compatriot Kidambi Srikanth and coach Pullela Gopichand. It marked Prannoy out for success, but that however never came. Injuries at inopportune times would trip him up whenever he looked to gain momentum.
It made sense for Prannoy to stop and take stock of his game, but he says he couldn't.
"During 2015 and 2016, the Olympic qualification was on everyone's mind. Even if we needed to take a break, and work on our game, we couldn't because we were all trying to get to the Olympic spots. You can't afford to take a step back.
"More ranking points means you have the chance to take part in more tournaments which means you can get more ranking points. But sometimes you forget about the performance."
A first round exit at the India Open Super Series this year changed that. He took time to analyse himself and his game at the Gopichand Academy. "I could have done this before. But perhaps it is something you get through experience. When you are younger you want to do everything at the same time," he says.
He missed a few tournaments and his world rankings sank - he is currently ranked 25th in the world from a high of 12. But the tradeoff has been worth it.
"I thought about chasing tournaments this year also but as a player you need to be sure of what you want to achieve in a tournament. Will I be able to sustain myself in a tournament? You don't just want to go there.
"This time I could take it a little slowly. If I felt there was a niggle somewhere, I could work on that part of my body instead of rushing things in training. When I returned, I felt just like I was back in 2015."
It was the turn of Wei to face the brunt of what that meant on Thursday, just as Dan had, over two years ago. And while Prannoy doesn't rate this win particularly as high as that previous encounter, or even the fact that he is the only Indian to hold wins against both Lin and Lee, he is grateful for where it places him in the tournament.
"I haven't played a Superseries quarterfinal in nearly two years (he last reached the last eight stage at the 2015 Singapore Open). It feels good to get there."
But Prannoy knows his task isn't done. If he wants to get into the tournament weekend, he will have to beat Olympic gold medalist Chen Long of China. It isn't a prospect many would be thrilled about, but Prannoy is raring for the challenge.
"Going into the match, I wasn't thinking that I was going to play Lee Chong Wei and what kind of record he has against Indians. I was simply looking to win. I will be doing that against Chen Long too."