hyderabad hs prannoy the lone indian to qualify for the yearending bwf world tour finals has been drawn in group a along with world no 1 viktor axelsen of denmark world no 14 kodai naraoka of japan and world no 17 lu gaung zu of chinaonly top eight players on the basis of their performances in the last 12 months qualified for this tournament beginning in bangkok on wednesday dec 7 group b comprises world no 3 loh kean yew of singapore world no4 chou tien chen of chinese taipei and indonesians world no 5 jonatan christie and world no 7 anthony sinisuka gintingtwo players from each group make it to the semifinals in this round robin tournament but for axelsen the other three in group a are outside top10 whereas all four in group b are top10 playersto make it to the semifinals prannoy should win at least two matches from his group while it may be difficult to down world champion viktor axelsen who won 11 titles out of the 15 tournaments he played this year prannoy may fancy his chances against naraoka and guang zujapanese youngster naraoka is one of the most improved player this year he won the vietnam open and reached the finals at korea masters singapore open and taipei openprannoy has played naraoka and gaung zu only once but lost to both of them while naraoka defeated prannoy in the quarterfinals of singapore open 1221 2114 2118 gaung zu downed the indian in the prequarterfinals of the french open 1921 2220 1921both prannoy and gaung zu did not win a single tournament this year but made it to the semifinals and quarterfinals of several major events prannoy started 2022 by reaching the quarterfinals of india open german open and syed modi tournament before losing in the final of swiss open in march he reached the semifinals of indonesia open which is a super1000 event the kerala shuttler trained hard over the last few weeks and is aware that this is his best chance to win the first major title of his career at the bwf award ceremony on monday prannoy won the best dressed male award