When Kidambi Srikanth misjudged a defensive clearance from Loh Kean Yew after 43-minutes of high-octane badminton to help the Singaporean cement his place in World Championships history at the Carolina Marin sports arena on Sunday, the one thought that would have immediately cross his mind, of his coach and all the Indian badminton fans would have been ‘What if’?
What if the shuttle had travelled a few centimetres more and given the former world No 1 another lifeline? What if Srikanth would have not made the error after saving two match points and managing to make his 24-year-old opponent look human for the first time since his opening game in the competition (against Viktor Axelsen)?
The way Srikanth played through the week after being unsure of making the journey to Spain due to visa issues a week before the tournament and only hoping to win a few matches, the way he came back after losing the opening game in the men’s singles final, the 28-year-old from Guntur could have written his own chapter in the annals of the prestigious tournament.
It was not to be for the Srikanth. But Indian badminton definitely secured another page or two in those books thanks to the stellar performance in Huelva and also proved to the world that there is a lot more to offer in the future.
For the first time since 2011, when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa ended India’s 28-year wait for a World Championship medal, two Indian men assured themselves of a medal.
The performance of Srikanth and Lakshya Sen also glossed over the disappointment of seeing defending champion PV Sindhu fail to win a medal at a major championship for the first time since her quarter-final loss in the 2015 edition of the World Championships.
One has been accustomed to watching Sindhu find her Midas touch in such major events, making the form book through the year irrelevant. But in Huelva, the two-time Olympic medallist was clearly second best against an inspired Tai Tzu Ying in the quarter-finals and failed to add to her collection of one gold, two silver and two bronze from the world championships.
In fact, Sindhu was considered to be the only pre-tournament medal hopeful from the country as almost all others were struggling for form or had injury concerns.
Going into the world championship, Srikanth had not reached a final of any competition since 2019 and had last won an international title back in 2017. While Sen had failed to make the Indian team for the Thomas Cup and Sudirman Cup following his early loss in the selection trials. Last edition bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth was struggling to win a single match in any competition since Tokyo Olympics and HS Prannoy could only manage a last-minute entry in the competition due to large number of withdrawals.
And despite the entire Indonesian contingent pulling out over Covid fears and defending champion Kento Momota ruled out due to injury, not many would have put their money on the Indian men’s singles players in the above backdrop.
While Saina Nehwal and then Sindhu had been flying the Indian flag in marquee events, chief national coach Pullela Gopichand had always been speaking about the strength in numbers of the Indian men’s singles contingent. There was a time when 7 or 8 of them would make it to main draws of Superseries events and though most of them would only make it to quarterfinals or semi-finals, they were always considered dark horses who could disrupt the chances of any top players.
And the 2001 All England champion would finally be pleased to see them living up to the potential as three of them reached the top-8 and added a silver and bronze to India’s kitty of 10 previous world championship medals.
Sen and Prannoy didn’t really have an easy draw but they dug deep to get the better of higher ranked players like Kenta Nishimoto and NG Ka Long Angus respectively in their opening encounters to let their campaign take flight.
Prannoy, who had beaten many top names in the past but had struggled for consistency, successfully negotiated those landmines till he came across the invincible Loh in the quarter-finals.
But in the top half, Srikanth had finally found momentum to convert his improving form into match winning performances. The former World No 1 had been struggling with injuries in the last few years and the failure to qualify for Tokyo had not really helped his case.
But since the Sudirman Cup in Finland in September, the 28-year-old had found himself on the wrong end of close matches against top players but knew that all he needed was a good number of matches under his belt for the tide to turn.
Fortunately for him, that happened when it mattered the most. He fought back from a hopeless situation against Li Shi Feng in the second round and then bulldozed his next two opponents to assure himself of his first World Championships medal.
In the top quarter, Sen was also proving to the world and even himself why he is so highly rated. The former junior World No 1 had added a strong defence and tons of patience to his aggressive game style and that saw him save a match point before getting the better of China’s Zhou Jun Peng to become the youngest Indian man to be assured of a world championship podium finish.
And the battle of generations in the first semi-final was an icing on the cake for any badminton fan as the current top dog of Indian men’s badminton and his widely anointed successor treating us with a mesmerising encounter that the former managed to pull off by banking on experience and doubles skills that he possessed during the junior days.
In the paired events, men’s doubles combination of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy would be disappointed to bow out at the pre-quarters stage but the latter had been troubled by knee pain for a few months and was far from his best.
The women’s doubles combination of Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy did manage to register an inspiring win over 14th seeds Liu Xuan Xuan and Xia Yu Ting of China but they were never really in medal contention.
The rest of the contingent, one of the biggest in the competition so far, was mostly there to make up the numbers and couldn’t go beyond the opening round as expected.
But there is no denying the fact that these last eight days of the 2021 international badminton season rekindled the hope that Indian badminton has the potential to build on the gains of the last decade which saw India winning a World Championships medal in every edition since 2011.
Yes, the disappointment of losing out on another gold medal will linger for a while as Srikanth had a chance in both the games against Loh and had he converted them, Indian badminton would have found special wings.
But 2021 ending with two medals from completely unexpected quarters definitely augurs well for the new years that will see Indian badminton stars challenging for medals at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
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