Has B. Sai Praneeth finally come into his own? Has the 27-year-old badminton player broken through shackles holding him back, and on his way to co-script one of the finest periods of Indian badminton alongside contemporaries Kidambi Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy?
By winning a bronze medal at the ongoing BWF World Championships in Basel, becoming only the second Indian male shuttler to do so after the great Prakash Padukone in 1983, Sai Praneeth appears to have answered the above questions. The Andhra Pradesh player's talent was never in question, but the consistency in results that made one pull one's hair.
His is a story of a tireless 14-year long journey in badminton, where the results somehow never commensurate with his abilities and efforts. He had won the bronze at the Junior World Championship in 2010. For Sai Praneeth, 2019 is his year of making history, but it was 2017 which was his breakthrough year. He beat not just the top players of the world, but also reinforced the belief in his own ability to do so. Currently ranked 19th in the BWF World Rankings, Sai Praneeth beat two Asian Games medallists in the World Championships. He has been a giant killer of sorts in the past too.
Going back to 2017, the year he won the Singapore Open Super Series final beating his own countryman, friend and academy mate Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth won his first Super Series win. He notched up wins against heavyweights such as Indonesian Taufiq Hidayat, Olympic gold medallist Lin Dan and then world number 1 Lee Chong Wei. He was then ranked 30 in the world. But the issue was not his ability, but mental and physical fitness. The mindset shift was apparent.
“If you beat a top player, your confidence goes up. Earlier, it was all about giving your best against top players. Now, we think of winning,” Sai Praneeth had told THE WEEK post his Singapore Open win. However, injuries pegged him back a bit.
Sai Praneeth lost to Japan's Kento Momota in the BWF World Championship semifinal | AFP
In 2018, Sai Praneeth's best performance was in the New Zealand Open―a semifinal loss to Jonathan Christie. The year was nothing spectacular for him. The 2018 edition of the BWF World Championships saw him lose to Momoto in the quarterfinals.
His best performance in 2019 so far has been reaching the finals of the Swiss Open in March, but lost to China's Shi Yu Qui. In July, he reached the semifinals of the Japan Open, losing to world number one Kento Momota.
For Sai Praneeth, his world of badminton had a lone star―Pullela Gopichand―his idol and coach. He took to badminton after watching his mother's sister Sridevi Kasturi, a national level player, play the game. His grandfather is his biggest supporter.
“As a child, I only wanted to play badminton. I used to watch Gopi sir play, my aunt was his contemporary. As soon as he opened his academy, I joined it. I have been here since the age of 12,” Praneeth had told THE WEEK while training at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.
His run in the ongoing World Championships stands out more so for the fact that he had not dropped a single game till the semifinal, which he lost to Momota. He may not be the fittest player, but he is injury-free and moving well. Coach Gopichand praised him profusely, after his quarterfinal win over Switzerland's Jonathan Christie. “He has really matured, worked hard, pushed himself.”
Watching his ward come up with results is no doubt a matter of immense satisfaction for the tireless and hard taskmaster that is Gopichand.
