Tokyo World Badminton Championships: Stage set for that elusive world title

No. 12 seed Kidambi Srikanth lost in the final last year to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew. Most recently, he won a bronze in the individual event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. (Image source: Twitter/@narendramodi)

Shortly after the Indian men’s badminton team won the Thomas Cup title in May, they changed their WhatsApp group name. The group, created for and by the players prior to the event, was initially called “It’s coming home”, a phrase borrowed from football that seemed to suit their ambitions of claiming the trophy. Title in the pocket, the name changed to “World Championships”.

That name change, more than three months before the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships that starts in Tokyo on August 22, was a symbol of a collaborative motivational tool for personal ambitions. An individual world title will be further corroboration of India’s status as a badminton powerhouse and for its male players to come out of the shadow of the more accomplished Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu. The name change has further significance, of confidence, of belief and ambition, which will come to possible fruition over the course of the next week.

Three of the four Indian men in competition find themselves in the same bottom half of the draw. No. 12 seed Kidambi Srikanth lost in the final last year to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew, the Indian’s best performance at the event so far, which makes 2022 an exciting prospect for him.

Srikanth is coming off a disappointing—by his high standards—Commonwealth Games, in which he won a bronze medal in the individual event and his defeat to Malaysia’s Tze Yong Ng in the team competition meant India got a silver medal. The Thomas Cup win is now a distant memory, an event in which Srikanth’s role as a senior member of the team and one of its star performers was instrumental in the eventual triumph.

The loss to Malaysia left Srikanth distraught, according to his teammates. “This is not the end for us and maybe the tough losses will push us to bigger results,” doubles player Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy told reporters in Birmingham after the tie. “Maybe Srikanth will win World Championship gold… Every day is a first day.”

In the World Championships last year, Srikanth defeated Lakshya Sen in the semi-finals, an unusual occurrence for two Indian players to be in the last four. Sen, seeded higher at nine in Tokyo, is fresh off a gold medal in Birmingham, but if his first shot at the World title, in 2021, is anything to go by, he has much to be hopeful for.

Since winning the India Open in January in Delhi, Sen has had a year of near misses, finishing second in the German Open in March and losing in the final of the All England the following week.

His was one of the tougher roles in the Thomas Cup—as the top ranked Indian player, he had to play against the top-ranked player of the other teams. Besides suffering from an upset stomach at the beginning of the event, he picked up a shoulder injury as well later, which affected his results. He skipped a few tournaments after, saving himself for the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships, which has worked favourably so far.

Lakshya Sen

If all goes well for him, he could meet H.S. Prannoy in the third round in Japan. Prannoy has only once made it to the quarterfinals of the World Championships, losing to Loh last year. He has had a consistent year, making it to the quarterfinals of eight tournaments this year, losing in the final of the Swiss Open in March and in the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open and Malaysia Masters.

The luck of the draw has ensured only one of the three can make it to the semi-final. To get that far, the No. 2 seed, Japan’s Kento Momota, and fifth seed Lee Zil Jia will have to be defeated—a challenging task.

The only Indian in the top half of the draw, B. Sai Praneeth, lost in the semi-finals of the World Championships in 2019 to Momota and has struggled with his results this year.

With Sindhu pulling out of the event due to a stress fracture of the left foot, and Nehwal having slipped down in rankings, the focus this year will be on the men.

The change in Indian badminton, a transformation in work over the last decade, is evident from its Thomas Cup win and how a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games is seen as a failure to win the gold, something that’s expected of the collective.

Coach Mathias Boe said after the Malaysia tie at the Commonwealth Games that, “hopefully it can get a little bit of anger out of people to respond in the individual event now. And increase the thirst for gold in coming days.”

While Sen at 21 is just at the beginning of a promising career, others like Srikanth, 29, Sai Praneeth, 30, and Prannoy, 30, have reached an age when opportunities for a big title will become rarer. There will be fitness issues, younger competitors, thoughts about the future. A world title will be a apt reward for this generation of Indian badminton players, a rare one in which several are ranked simultaneously and continuously in the top 20. It’s the generation that followed Parupalli Kashyap, still ranked in the top 50s at age 35, who was a successor to P. Gopichand, one of India’s most successful players and a pioneering coach.

H.S. Prannoy (Image: Twitter/@bwfmedia)

Prannoy, for one, is already adopting newer methods to stay on top of his game. He has talked about working with a company Invictus on strength and conditioning, on the mental side of the game, working on psychology and focus on breathing. Others have their own methods of seeking longevity, keeping the dream alive, hoping for that elusive big title. Tokyo 2022 may provide the answer, one that could take Indian badminton to the next level.