In 2001, Pullela Gopichand secured a historic All England Badminton Championship victory to end India’s two-decade-long international title drought. The achievement was lauded by fans across the country as it helped reintroduce badminton within India’s national mind space. Data procured from the Badminton Association of India (BAI) indicated a 50 % increase in admission of students to official training centres, during that time.
One particular 9- year old from Hyderabad, also began harbouring similar dreams for international success. After watching the monumental final encounter, Sai Praneeth told his father, “Appa, I want to become like him,” and he wasn’t kidding.
Two years later in 2003, Sai became the first student to be roped in by Gopichand. During that time, the Dronacharya Awardee was taking baby steps towards coaching and didn’t boast of the successes that he has now. In fact, the first two years, he trained his kids in rented badminton spaces.
It was only in 2005 that the official Pullela Gopichand Academy was launched, after he mortgaged his house and property to buy land for it.
Not many from Gopichand’s first batch earned much success; in fact it was his protégés from successive batches that went to make it big. The likes of Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu have consistently proven Gopichand’s ability to churn out talent at the highest echelon of the sport.
Last week, the Singapore Super Series Men’s Singles final saw an unlikely first for India. Despite a decade of consistent participation in top-tier tournaments, this was the very first time that a major international tournament witnesses an all-Indian final. It was Kidambi Srikanth, and yes the teary-eyed boy, who wanted to become like Gopichand, Sai Praneeth.
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A Junior prodigy who almost gave up
For the past two years, both Srikanth and Sai trained with each other, attempting to boost India’s Men’s Singles chances. One quick glance at the BWF Men’s Singles rankings will highlight the nation’s depth of talent.
As many as 11 shuttlers make the top 100, out of which eight are coached by Gopichand himself. In fact, despite boasting of higher ranked players, Women’s singles have only two players ranked in the top 50 in Sindhu and Saina Nehwal.
Srikanth, who was the only Indian Men’s Super-Series winner squared off against Sai for the fifth time in just two months’ time. Hence it was safe to say that they knew each other’s game plans, but for Sai this was much more than a final. It was a chance to prove to the world that he has finally come of age, and boy, did he not disappoint.
After winning the final, 17-21, 21-17, 21-12, Sai finally did justice to a talent that was once termed by Gopichand as ‘World Class’. So what happened over the past decade? Why did it take a young prodigy so long to finally scale the international peak?
Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, he said, “When I was a kid I saw Gopi Sir win the All England Championship, it became my dream to play badminton at that level. I tried a lot of sports like Athletics etc, but badminton was my first love. Even before I joined Gopi Sir, I used to travel 20 km to the Gachibowli stadium every morning to play at 4 am. It became my life, and it still is.”
Sai’s father invested all his savings in grooming him to become an international level player and the initial signs were promising. He won the National Men’s singles title at the U-10, U-13, U-16, U-18 levels to highlight himself as up and comer. A bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in Guadalajara only strengthened Gopichand’s belief in his talent.
He said, “I think mentally Gopi Sir has helped me a lot, there were times when I didn’t feel motivated enough and he always understood those phases about me. He knew when I would go down and come back up again. His strongest asset as a coach is his ability to measure and develop a player’s mental prowess. I think he has done that very well with me.”
A junior career which spanned almost five years saw him defeat current world beaters such as Viktor Axelsen from Denmark on a consistent basis. However, the transition from junior to senior left a bad taste in Sai’s mouth. He added, “I think my first year as a pro was decent, I had some landmark victories, including a few victories against world number 5. I wasn’t consistent because I think I had mentally lost the battle before it even started.”
In 2013, Sai defeated Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat and then world number 1 Lee Chong Wei to announce him to the world. However, the subsequent couple of years were a phase of turmoil for the Telangana-based shuttler.
He added, “I got a bad shin injury in 2014, which saw me out for three to four months, this had a massive impact on me mentally then physically. I felt as if I couldn’t get out of that slump post injury.”
Despite a promising start to his senior career, Sai dropped drastically down the BWF rankings in 2014, due to both injury and the inability to come back from that. This is the time where Gopichand’s coaching was tested to its limit. A source close to the Gopichand camp said, “That particular phase Pullela was quite frustrated with Sai. Not only was he underperforming, but a sort of laziness had set in him about his performances.
“He used to get happy about small victories and settle, hence it wasn’t going down well with him. Despite such problems, Pullela was always adamant about Sai’s ability and how working on his mental strength would make him a far better player.”
Sai’s father Deekshitulu said, “Even we saw that he had given up hope, he would not give his 100 % and badminton had become a burden for him. But, Gopi Sir made him realise what his dream was, and what he was working for such a long period of time.”
You won, but you cannot count this as a victory: Gopichand to Sai
Sai himself admits his relatively dull phase in 2014 and 2015, where he was unable to notch any international titles. He added, “People spoke a lot about me at the junior level, they thought I would be the next Gopichand. But, I never thought I was a special one, I wasn’t a natural, I got everything through hard work. The moment that went, the results dip, so for me I have to work far harder than anyone else because I don’t feel I have that natural talent.”
In fact Gopichand’s reaction to Sai’s victory simply summed up the national team coach’s apprehensions towards conforming to his first student’s success. Sai said, “When I called up Gopi Sir about the victory, he told me I wasn’t good enough and made a lot of mistakes.
“He said I can only get better from here, and that it takes something special to win a tournament, not everybody can do it. This shows the talent is there, but my goal should be the World Championship title.
“I completely understand where he is coming from, I made a lot of mistakes and should’ve closed out the match a long time back. If I watch the match again, I can clearly highlight the areas where I went wrong. Three years ago, the old me would be offended and affected by his reaction, but I know now he only wants me to get better. I will forever be indebted to him for helping me stay motivated.”
Whether Sai Praneeth can reach the starry heights of his mentor, only time will tell, but in winning the Singapore Super Series title, the 26-year old has proved that a bad phase in life doesn’t define who you are.
