Sai Praneeth’s grandfather Shiv Shankar Rao, the driving force behind his career, charmingly calls his sport ‘shuttle badminton.’ “Sai Praneeth became a Super Series champion in shuttle badminton today,” he chortles happily soon after his 24-year-old grandson has beaten Kidambi Srikanth 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 in Singapore. That is because ball-badminton remains equally respected across floodlit tournaments in the whole of southern India. Sai though aces shuttle.
He recalls phone numbers being easier to remember (since they were 8-digit landlines) rather than the 12 numbers now (the septuagenarian insists +91 is an un-omittable part of a cell phone number) back when his daughter — and Sai’s maternal aunt – Sridevi Kasturi, started playing shuttle badminton in Andhra. When she quit owing to a knee injury, the Reserve Bank employee had been heartbroken because he wanted her to represent India but that dream never reached fruition. “Holding the Indian flag on your back is not a small thing. I know because I could never play internationally,” she says a tad wistfully. The family put their entire hopes on the eldest grand-child: an unstressed child who after rejecting athletics, swimming and gymnastics after a few weeks each at summer camps, finally settled onto what his aunt played best — badminton. India’s golden generation of badminton — the one that’s brimming with success right now — typically comes from Hyderabad, and like a rite of passage has followed the path of being coached early by the city’s respected coaches — Nani Prasad and Govardhan Reddy and SM Arif, before they dropped roots at Pullela Gopichand’s.
While his father worked in East Godavari, Sai Praneeth, staying with his maternal grandparents, would be woken up at 4 am. He would then take the 18-km bus ride to Gachibowli. “Every morning I’d drop him at the LB Stadium bus stop at 4 am, then pick him from the bus stop around 9, take him to school, bring him back. That was our routine. His parents were in private service, but I decided to put in all my savings into his game – shoes and travel and shuttles,” Rao recalls.
Sai Praneeth won every age-group title there was — U-10, U-13, U-16, junior nationals — in both doubles and singles. But till Sunday, the family that had invested money and emotion into their talented grandson, had lived in stalking doubt of how their boy’s life would ultimately shape up in the sport. “Now he’ll have the confidence that he can win anything — I think now we know we were right to push him into shuttle badminton,” Sridevi says.
Badminton’s Hyderabad blues aren’t documented enough — because there’s been so many champions from here right from Gopichand to PV Sindhu now. Sai Praneeth was tipped to join those names sooner because he was bursting with natural talent — a few dozen strokes more than any of his peers and a game that could conquer Taufik Hidayat and even Lee Chong Wei at All England. “But immediately after the big wins, he would lose the next round. It wouldn’t make sense, but we kept his confidence up,” the aunt says. The injuries after which he would sulk alone and the many first-round losses would follow a pattern. “He would either say I played badly, the other boy simply won. Or he’d say I played well, but the other guy played better,” says his father Deekshitulu, who never saw him being bogged down but remembers seeing his son at home only on weekends after he started living at the academy a decade ago.
Sai Praneeth himself remains unfussed about talk of his talent that frustrated so many around him — when it didn’t yield titles. “Yes I won all junior levels. And people keep saying I’m talented, but I’ve never felt that I’m specially talented or anything. I have some good strokes, and in some areas I’m good. All my strokes are natural, and I work on them too. But I’m like anyone else,” he says, though he settles on the assessment that he is good at deciding what stroke to play when.
Stars did align to make him India’s only second Super Series title winner after K Srikanth in men’s singles — Saina and Sindhu have won in women’s. The match was a scratchy affair: Srikanth looked in control with his jump-smashes halfway through, but Sai Praneeth — perhaps aware of his tiring opponent’s flagging fitness — would gain dominance at the net, and push rallies longer, much to Srikanth’s discomfort and tilt momentum his way.
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Sai’s strokes were smooth yet simple, and this wasn’t one with deep strategic layers though there were counter dribbles pleasing to the eye. At 17-19 in the second, Srikanth — attempting some desperate pushes — would serve into the net, and never recover thereafter. “Initially I struggled for rhythm, but reacted well. I wasn’t nervous at all and he was under some pressure,” Sai would say. Pressure and Sai’s fluid backhand from midcourt and forehand at the net would send Srikanth zigzagging right and left, and eventually tire him out. “It was bothering me I hadn’t won a title despite beating big names. Now I want more titles,” Sai says. Frustration at peak
Sai’s frustrations had peaked these last two months when coach Gopichand pulled him out of the circuit and packed him off to train and strengthen an iffy shoulder. “I’d be alone training, while my ranking went down. I had to show results in these three tournaments — I lost at India Open in 2nd round, played well against Lin Dan in Malaysia, but I needed this title.”
Srikanth is Praneeth’s training partner at Gopichand’s academy in Hyderabad.
The word ‘lazy’ tags elegance, and Sai Praneeth’s academy mate and friend Guru Sai Dutt says, “We all know he’s talented… but lazy also!” Hardworking wasn’t an adjective he would attach to himself either, though the last two months have seen him turn intense and focused in training, pushing himself in every session.
The years of mega expectations and under-achievements had turned him into a vocal cribber — not about losses (he had amazing equanimity about wins and losses), but about how tough the training regimen could get and minor irritants like food taking longer to arrive when the team dined abroad. “I wish he cribbed that much about the bad movies he watched. He can watch anything and say ‘It’s Ok’, even the bad ones. We never trust his movie reviews,” Guru laughs. “But he got me watching the Telugu comedy show Jabardasht.
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He’s addicted to it. He’s very chilled out and free, and doesn’t take anything seriously. Loves watching movies — Telugu and Hindi maybe, not so much English ones. He’s happiest chatting away in Telugu slang with friends,” Guru says. “And is a big Anushka Shetty fan!”
Ask Sai Praneeth about this, and he says, “No favourite. I like anyone who looks brilliant that day on screen.”
Just like his strokes — anything that fetches him brilliant titles.
7 min read
Sai Praneeth clinched his maiden Super Series title after beating Kidambi Srikanth in three games in a 54-minute final in Singapore on Sunday. File
Srikanth is Praneeth’s training partner at Gopichand’s academy in Hyderabad.
