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It is interesting to see the divergent trajectories of defending world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Indian Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth, who will be the fourth Indian – alongside Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma – in men of 64 players. Draw at the next Badminton World Championships in Nanjing, China
B Sai Praneeth file image. Courtesy of Image: BAI Media
In his last year as a junior, Praneeth won the bronze medal at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, after losing a tough semi-final of three Dane matches, who was 17 months his junior at the time. Axelsen won the gold medal that year and won the money the following year, while defending his title, losing a marathon encounter against Malaysian Zulfadli Zulkiffli.
As his career flourished, Praneeth continued to consecrate the Indian. national crown, titles of the Thailand Open and the Canadian Open Gold Grand Prix; and had a great year in 2016, which included a first-round win over Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia at the All England Championships. The Hyderabadi had its best time in international badminton almost a year ago, when it won the Singapore Open Superseries at the expense of its friend and usual training partner, Srikanth.
Axelsen, on the other hand, seemed to be the eternal Round, reaching the final of six Superseries tournaments, but failing to win a single one, until he made a breakthrough at of the grand finale of Superseries 2016 in Dubai, pocketing the title with a victory of three games against the Chinese Tian Houwei. 19659005] The Dane also won the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 at the expense of former double gold medalist, Lin Dan, then reached his full potential by beating the Chinese in the final of the 2017 World Championships in Glasgow, depriving Lin of what would have been his sixth world crown.
Subsequently, Axelsen added the end-of-season title Superseries to the Open of India and the Japan Open that he had bagged earlier in the year. the year before, ankle ankle made it impossible to keep playing at the highest level, and he had to go under the knife in the first weeks of this year. The return of the Dane on the circuit has not been as successful as that of his 2017 season, but he is gradually returning to the kind of form that saw him drop the colors of the legendary Lin of Glasgow.
Praneeth, on the other hand, has seen his form fall alarmingly since his exploits in Singapore and, in the second quarter of 2018, was not able to stop his downfall in Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings. On the eve of his 26th birthday (August 10th), the Indian ranks 26th, far from the 12th place he reached in mid-March this year.
The Palakol (Andhra Pradesh) born Praneeth has always shown a huge promise, but a series of injuries and lack of fitness have been responsible for results that have not fully done justice to its potential. It relies on length and control, and has no exceptional hits, except perhaps the low, flat shot that converts a mostly defensive shot into an offensive shot.
Praneeth's recent results, particularly the way of defeats, have been the most discouraging. He was overwhelmingly beaten by Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei during the opening round of the Malaysian Open, and suffered an almost identical humiliation at the hands of the same player at the Open. Indonesia that followed. Losing for a higher ranked player is understandable, but losing by a score of 10-21, 13-21 indicates a wide gap in skills and abilities between the two players involved. Praneeth fellow, HS Prannoy, duly put Wang in his place in the second round
Praneeth jumped the Thailand Open, where he was the defending champion, after defeating Indonesian Jonatan Christie in a Royal fight of 72 minutes last year. However, he returned to Singapore to defend the title he had won in 2017 after defeating Srikanth, his teammate at the Gopichand Academy
. Sixth, the Indian ended up biting the dust during his first ever unseen Japanese outing, Yu Igarashi, then ranked 61st in the world. Although the scores of 21-16, 16-21, 18-21 were close, the result of this match was put in perspective by the defeat of 14-21, 14-21 inflicted on Igarashi in his duel in the second round with China. Qiao Bin
This fall of form, at a time when Praneeth never complained of an injury, is far from the performance of the Indian at the World Championships. ;last year. He started with a nice 21-18, 21-17 win over Wei Nan, of Hong Kong, and won with a 14-21, 21-18, 21-19 win over Indonesian player Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. Praneeth was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Chou Tien Chen, sixth seed of Chinese Taipei, losing speed and intensity after winning the first match, in a 21-19 loss. , 10-21, 12-21. At the World Championships, Praneeth faces a difficult but not insurmountable hurdle for South Korea's No. 4 seed, Son Wan Ho, who plays a game that looks strangely similar to his. The Indian was not able to beat the chunky and ultra-korean Korean ace in four previous games, including the first three as they ended in consecutive losses.
There seemed to be hope for Praneeth in his fourth clash. the All England Championships in March of this year, when he ran away with the opening match at 21-13. However, he lost speed against a steady stream of returns from the indefatigable Son, and surrendered in the next two games to 15-21, 11-21. The final stanza, in particular, was a total exclusion and reflected the relatively poor level of Indian fitness.
If Praneeth passed Son, he should have a much easier trot until the eighth step. He would probably cross swords with Japanese Kazumasa Sakai in the second round, and would have Indonesian 15th Tommy Sugiarto, or the Danish Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus, who was waiting for him in the pre-quarter-final. All these players are placed in brackets, as well as Kento Momota, No. 6 of Japan, in the quarter of the draw of Son.
The main task of Sai Praneeth in Nanjing is to prove that the Son does not always rise
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