New Delhi: A momentous gold at the World Championships more than made up for PV Sindhu’s otherwise ordinary run in the circuit. In the men’s segment, the emergence of teenager Lakshya Sen ensured that Indian badminton had a strong future to look forward to.
After two silvers and two bronze medals, Sindhu finally fetched India its first ever World Championships gold in the sport but spent rest of the year struggling for form.
The World Championship in Switzerland, in fact, was a big one for India in more than one way as B Sai Praneeth emulated Prakash Padukone by winning a men’s singles bronze medal, ending a 36-year wait.
India had a lot going in the doubles circuit as well with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty leaving many of their illustrious seniors behind by becoming the first Indian men’s pair to win a Super 500 title at Thailand Open and then reaching the French Open Super 750 final.
But the Indian story of 2019 in men’s badminton was without doubt the 18-year-old Lakshya, who clinched five titles to zoom his way to a career best 32nd in a memorable season.
Sourabh Verma also rediscovered himself and claimed Super 100 titles at Vietnam and Hyderabad besides entering the Syed Modi International Super 300 final.
In women’s singles, besides Sindhu’s World Championships high, Saina Nehwal bagged the Indonesia Masters Super 300 crown before being bogged down by injuries and pancreatitis.
Also Sindhu’s stocks nosedived after the World Championship success as she struggled to make it to the business end of major tournaments. She also failed to defend her title at the year-end World Tour Finals.
It was also a bad year for Kidambi Srikanth, who had won four titles in 2017 and claimed the gold at the Commonwealth Games to grab the World No.1 status for a brief while in 2018. He really struggled to get going in 2019.
Srikanth reached just one final at the India Open before a knee injury affected his progress as he slumped to a string of uncharacteristic defeats to tumble out of the top 10 and finish the year at the 12th spot.
HS Prannoy also continued to find the going tough. A bout of dengue in September further pegged him back as he finished the season 26th in world rankings.
While the seniors struggled, Lakshya grabbed headlines with his memorable run.
Starting the season at No. 109 in the world, Lakshya moved to No. 76 after a final finish at Polish Open. He then claimed the Belgian International in September before winning the Dutch Open Super 100 and SaarLorLux Super 100 in October. He went on to claim the Scottish Open crown in November before ending the year with his fifth title at Bangladesh International Challenge.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy had a forgettable year as they made 13 first-round exits and were ousted in the second round three times.
The year also saw two foreign coaches – Malaysia’s Tan Kim Her and Korea’s Kim Ju Hyun – depart from Indian badminton, prompting chief national coach Pullela Gopichand to reiterate the need to train Indian coaches.
With the Olympics less than seven months away, Gopichand has the challenging task of once again ensuring that his wards are in best shape in Tokyo, where India would look to go one better on the two medals claimed in the last two editions.
Agencies