From Prakash Padukone’s first to PV Sindhu’s five: India’s medals at BWF World C’ships

The BWF Badminton World Championships are set to be held at the Palacio de los Deportes Carolina Marin in Huelva, Spain, from December 12 to 19, and Indian shuttlers will be determined to add to the country’s medal tally at the marquee event.

At the previous edition held in Basel, Switzerland, in 2019, India had extended their streak of winning at least one medal at the badminton Worlds to six straight editions starting from 2011.

While B Sai Praneeth ended India’s 36-year wait for a second medal in men’s singles, the highlight of course was women’s singles superstar PV Sindhu becoming the country’s first-ever gold medalist at the event.

It was Sindhu’s fourth World Championship medal in five editions. In fact, at Basel in 2019, Sindhu equalled the tally of former Olympics and World Champion Zhang Ning to become the joint-most successful women’s singles shuttler in the history of the tournament with five medals in total (two bronze, two silver and one gold).

India have won a total of 10 medals at the showpiece event, with the legendary Prakash Padukone becoming the country’s first medalist back in 1983.

It then took 28 long years for India to win their second medal at the event, and it was the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa who broke through to end the wait.

Since then, Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Sai Praneeth have helped India build their tally at the Badminton World Championships.

Prakash Padukone (bronze) – Copenhagen, 1983

One of India’s greatest athletes, Padukone was close to his best heading into the World Championships in Copenhagen. In 1980, he had become the first Indian to win the All England crown and also bagged the Denmark Open and Swedish Open titles, apart from winning a bronze medal at the World Cup. That year, he also became the first Indian to claim the world No 1 ranking.

At the World Championships in 1983, Padukone won his first four matches and stormed into the semi-finals having dropped just one game. In the semis, he won the first game against eventual champion Icuk Sugiarto, who had beaten top seed Morten Frost in the previous round, but went down in three games.

Nevertheless, it was a historic moment for Indian badminton as Padukone became the first-ever medalist from the country at the World Championships.

Video: How Prakash Padukone became the catalyst for the rise of Indian badminton

Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa (bronze) – London, 2011

After a gap of 28 years, India’s wait for a second World Championship medal was ended by the women’s doubles pair of Gutta and Ponnappa in London, 2011. The duo was unseeded at the event but went on an extraordinary run to clinch a bronze medal.

Gutta and Ponnappa won their opening round match in straight games but ran into second seeds Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin in round two. The Taiwanese pair were the favourites but the Indians put on a stunning performance to win in straight games. Gutta and Ponnappa followed that up by defeating the 11th and 12th seeded pairs in the third round and quarter-finals respectively, before losing to fifth seeds Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei of China and returning with a bronze medal.

“There was no reception [for the duo back then] and now I think that was strange. Later, the way Sindhu was received was wow. Ours was no big deal for anyone. There were no questions about why doubles wasn’t doing well, so no celebration of when we did well either,” Ponnappa was quoted as saying by The Indian Express in 2020.

But for Indian badminton, it ended a long wait and marked the beginning of a memorable streak.

PV Sindhu (bronze) – Guangzhou, 2013

It had been 30 years since an Indian won a singles medal at the Worlds, but the wait ended in Guangzhou as an 18-year-old Sindhu won bronze to mark the beginning of a glorious run at the prestigious tournament. Saina Nehwal was the big Indian hope that year, she was seeded third and had won a bronze medal at the London Olympics the previous year, but she couldn’t make it past the quarter-finals. It was Sindhu who went on to announce her arrival at the biggest stage.

Pause, rewind, play: PV Sindhu’s 2013 World C’ship bronze medal was the start of something special

Sindhu, seeded 10, got a bye in the opening round before beating Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu in three tight games in round two. And it was in the third round where she produced a stunning performance to beat China’s Wang Yihan in straight games. The second seed was the firm favourite but the Indian teenager showed incredible grit to emerge victorious.

In the quarter-finals, Sindhu once again defeated a higher-ranked opponent. Chinese seventh seed Wang Shixian, too, was beaten in straight games. Sindhu lost to eventual champion Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand in the semi-finals but she had done enough by then to make the world sit up and take notice of her special talent. (Intanon went on to win the tournament as an 18-year-old defeating top seed Li Xuerui in the final).

PV Sindhu (bronze) – Copenhagen, 2014

Having created history in 2013, Sindhu was already a name to reckon with on the circuit and the 11th seed at the World Championships in 2014. And her bronze medal at Copenhagen was just as impressive as she once again beat higher-ranked opponents to make her way to the semi-finals.

After a bye in round one and a comfortable victory in round two, Sindhu was up against Bae Yeon-ju of South Korea. The sixth seed won the first game but Sindhu went on to produce a spectacular turnaround to clinch the match 19-21, 22-20, 25-23 in 75 minutes after saving a match point. And in the quarter-finals as well, the Indian teenager came from a game down to beat second seed Wang Shixian yet again at the event, this time in a 86-minute marathon.

Sindhu lost in straight games to eventual champion Carolina Marin in the semifinals, but the bronze medal finish was another big event medal in her young career at that point.

Saina Nehwal (silver) – Jakarta, 2015

Padukone’s run in 1983 was historic, as was Gutta and Ponnappa’s in 2011 and Sindhu’s in 2013. Similarly, Nehwal at Jakarta in 2015 took Indian badminton a step further by producing the best-ever performance up until then in women’s singles.

Nehwal, seeded second, breezed through the second and third rounds without dropping a game before edging out sixth seed Wang Yihan in three tight games in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, she ended unseeded Indonesian Lindaweni Fanetri’s phenomenal run in straight games.

The final saw the top two seeds go head-to-head and it was Marin who went on to defend her crown in straight games. Nehwal had lost to the Spaniard in the All England final earlier that year but held a 3-1 head-to-head advantage going into the 2015 World Championships final. However, Marin was too good on the day and went on to stamp her authority as the top-ranked player.

Saina Nehwal (bronze) – Glasgow, 2017

Sindhu may have suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final (more on that later) but there was more cheer for India as it was the first time the country had two medalists in the same edition of the World Championships.

Nehwal, seeded 15th, was close to her best in the third round as she beat second seed Sung Ji-hyun 21-19, 21-15. She followed that up with a hard-fought win over Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in the quarters, but lost to Okuhara in the semi-finals in three games.

However, the bronze medal finish was special for Nehwal as she had made a comeback from a career-threatening knee injury post the Rio Olympics.

PV Sindhu (silver) – Glasgow, 2017

Sindhu’s sensational run at the World Championships in 2017 was the closest an Indian had come to winning the title up until then. Seeded fourth, she stormed her way to the final before falling agonisingly short of claiming the top spot at the podium in a match that deserved no loser.

The then 22-year-old, who had won a historic silver medal at the Rio Olympics the previous year, saw off 13th seed Cheung Ngan Yi in the third round before earning a straight-games win over fifth seed Sun Yu in the quarters. In the semi-finals, she raised hopes of a gold medal finish by dominating Chen Yufei 21-13, 21-10.

However, the final saw Sindhu go down to seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara in an epic battle. The Japanese won the first game 21-19 but the Indian held her nerves to close out the second game 22-20 and force a decider. There was little to choose between them in the third game but it was Okuhara who eventually pulled ahead to win it 22-20. The match lasted 110 minutes, widely considered one of the greatest badminton games of all time.

Brutal rallies, tired limbs, triumphant spirit: Okuhara vs Sindhu was a match for the ages

PV Sindhu (silver) – Nanjing, 2018

The 2018 World Championships in Nanjing were also memorable for Sindhu. She may have missed out on the title again but she became the first Indian to bag a second silver medal at the marquee event. But that tournament will forever be remembered for the extraordinary Marin, who became the first woman to win three World Championship titles.

Sindhu, seeded third, was dominant in her opening two matches before she avenged her defeat to Okuhara the previous year by beating the beating the Japanese star 21-17, 21-19 in the quarter-finals. She then took her game a notch higher by defeating second seed Akane Yamaguchi in straight games in the semi-finals.

But in the final, Marin was once again a class apart as she claimed a 21-19, 21-10 victory. The Spaniard was seeded seventh but that week, there was little doubt left that she was the best player in the world.

B Sai Praneeth (bronze) – Basel, 2019

Sai Praneeth ended a 36-year wait for India in Basel by becoming the second men’s singles player from the country to win a medal at the World Championships, emulating Padukone’s. 1983 feat.

He was the last of the seeds in the tournament (16th) and won his first two matches in straight games against lower-ranked opponents. It was the stern tests he passed in the next two matches that helped him etch his name in history. In the third round, he beat sixth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in straight games, before following that up with another incredible 24-22, 21-14 win against fourth seed Jonatan Christie in the quarter-finals. Defeating the two dynamic Indonesians back-to-back was no mean feat and Sai Praneeth underlined his potential as a match-winner in Basel.

Sai Praneeth lost to top seed and eventual champion Kento Momota in the semi-finals, but his bronze medal finish was a memorable moment for men’s singles badminton in India.

PV Sindhu (gold) – Basel, 2019

Arguably the greatest moment in Indian badminton history, Sindhu’s gold medal at Basel in 2019 was just reward for her incredible consistency over the years.

The fifth-seeded Indian lost just one game, against second seed Tai Tzu Ying in the quarters, in five matches in the tournament, and completely dominated higher-ranked players Chen Yufei and Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-final and final. In fact, it took Sindhu just 37 minutes of stunning badminton to beat Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in the summit clash.

Pause, rewind, play: PV Sindhu, badminton World Champion

“I think, for me, this victory is big,” coach Pullela Gopichand told Scroll.in from Basel. “I think ‘World Champion’ is a big thing. To actually win it the way she has makes it even better. Doubly proud. It draws a lot of respect from people across the world and definitely for us as a country... we have seen bronze, we have seen silver and its great to see the gold.”

Sindhu is no stranger to big-event success, but till this point in her incredible career, that day in Basel will go down as the most significant.