When HS Prannoy switched on his mobile phone after upsetting defending Olympic and World Champion Chen Long in the quarterfinal of the Indonesia Open, among the flood of congratulatory text messages he received was one from his senior academy partner Parupalli Kashyap.
The message was an inside joke referencing a grueling training match the two had played only four days before in Hyderabad.
"We had played a really difficult, long match. So I told Prannoy that perhaps I had prepared him really well for his win against Chen Long. I told him that Indonesia is where Chen Long loses to Indians," Kashyap tells ESPN.
Kashyap jokes that he had perhaps prepared Prannoy in more ways than one. After all, before Prannoy's feat on Friday, Kashyap was the only previous Indian to have beaten the Chinese giant. It is perhaps coincidence that that victory in 2015 came at exactly the same stage of the same tournament.
But while the semifinals were as far as Kashyap would reach - he lost a close three-setter to Kento Momota in the very next game - he thinks Prannoy could go the distance.
It isn't just because Prannoy has single-handedly cleared - first beating Lee Chong Wei in the second round and then Chen Long in the quarters - what was at first glance a fiendishly tricky field. Having never made it past the quarters before, Prannoy has beaten two former world number ones and now faces World No. 47 Kazumasa Sakai, who had a 7-6 win-loss record going into the tournament this year.
What Prannoy has in his corner is an immense self belief that is snowballing ever more the further he travels into the tournament.
"Prannoy had got a little bit of confidence after beating Lee Chong Wei. But he has gone and beaten another top player the very next day. It's never easy to do that," Kashyap says. "They come into a contest expecting to win. That is a huge advantage. On the other hand Prannoy had to be mentally prepared. He had to be brave and courageous against Long. And he was."
Prannoy hasn't even been bothered by the blustery conditions at the Jakarta Convention Center, where the tournament is being held. The air conditioning has blown shuttles sideways and wreaked havoc on most players' games, but not Prannoy's, according to Kashyap.
"Quite simply he is in great form. He isn't making as many mistakes as his rivals. His game has worked in Indonesia. He has been hitting the shuttle really hard. There is a lot of air in the hall but it hasn't affected him too much.
"This is Prannoy's tournament. It is for him to lose now."
Spare a thought though for Kidambi Srikanth. In the other half of the draw, he has quietly managed to make a second straight Superseries semifinal. His path might not be as epic as that of his compatriot, but wins over Jan O Jorgensen, who made the final of the last three editions of the Indonesia Open, and Tzu Wei Wang, who has victories over Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei earlier this year, are nothing to be scoffed at.
Srikanth's opponent in the semis is World No.1 Son Wan Ho, against whom the Indian has a losing record. In any other tournament, this would be the highlight of an Indian performance. But not this one.
"Obviously anyone in the world will be under the radar with the kind of performances coming from Prannoy," Kashyap jokes.
Should both Srikanth and Prannoy advance, the stage will be set for a second all Indian Superseries final this year, following the Singapore Open where it was Srikanth and Sai Praneeth who fought for the title.
It's a scenario that would once have been unthinkable for Indian men's singles badminton but has now been achieved with little drama.
"Srikanth and Prannoy don't have to do anything silly. Right now it is just about staying calm. That's all they need to do," says Kashyap.