Does not having won All England (yet) diminish legacies of current Indian superstar shuttlers? | Badminton News

Two All England finals featuring Indians, and no titles, in the last 15 years – considered high-achieving for the sport – will go down as a serious, inexplicable anomaly for badminton.You can spin it whichever you like – cynically, saying that the All England is nothing special anymore, though nobody else in the badminton world believes that. Or that none of the Indians could quite time their peaks or work monkishly towards it like Prakash Padukone or Pullela Gopichand, did.
But as yet another edition takes off at Birmingham in the coming week, it will remain a gaping hole in career summaries and a large unticked box for some of the biggest names in Indian badminton. It’s nearing a quarter of a century since Gopichand won the last one in 2001, when almost a fourth of present-day India wasn’t even born. So you can hardly blame the present-day stars for not setting too much store on it. The All England itself ceased being the most prestigious event in badminton once the sport debuted at the Olympics in 1992, and then the World Championships became an annual affair.
Story continues below this ad

And there’s always that voice on social media dismissing all the fuss about the All England with callous shrugs of it being anachronic / irrelevant / not-a-big-deal. A ‘Who cares?’ that gets generously extended to One Day Internationals in cricket and doubles Grand Slams in tennis. That’s rich, because this apathy doesn’t stem from commonplaceness or India winning these trophies all the time. On the contrary, the unconcern is a hard-cope for not winning them at all. It’s almost glumly giving up, though the shuttlers can’t be faulted on giving it a good go year after year.
But the absolute pouring of their entire life into pursuing this title, like the two legends once did, is missing.
For Padukone, it was the pinnacle when the All E was as good as the World Championship. For Gopichand an obsession with redemption, after losing at the Sydney Olympics, and a career apogee.
The Chinese still arrive at Birmingham with an extra spring in the step than anywhere else on the calendar. Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei completely cut herself off from badminton, took off to Australia to study for 3 months, post her Paris loss. But come New Years, and she was itching to resume playing. The chosen event for her big comeback – the All England, though she did play another tune-up at Orleans this week.Story continues below this ad
Viktor Axelsen is gung-ho about aiming at his third crown, while the defending champion in women’s singles is Carolina Marin, who might struggle to ever come back, but will hold that title close in an Olympic year that had started with hope. The Indonesians too had a torrid Olympics at Paris, but Jojo Chrie and Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Ardianto salvaged a bad year clocking their peaks at Birmingham last year.
The buzz in fact is, that if Viktor Axelsen has to be dethroned the new generation, that coup will be timed at All England – be it Li Shifeng or Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The hugely shuffled Women’s singles prevailing order too will begin to take shape this week, with clarity on who really has it in them to challenge An Se Young.
India is woefully scattered this time around. But rarely has Indian badminton ever needed a burst of inspiration like a deep run at All England than now. International results have dried up, and badminton is struggling to find that happy headline when it once posted routine glad tidings, with multiple contenders.
Hope from doubles
It’s a challenging time for bereaved Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who lost his father last fortnight, and Chirag Shetty. Though for a few years now, it has been pretty clear that if anyone can score a strike at All England, it will be doubles, not singles.Story continues below this ad
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have two semifinals in this tournament, and had a decent World Tour Finals. The pairing is capable of upsetting some big names, but will need to pull off those wins – Chinese Taipei always tricky in Round 1, Koreans Kim-Kong next and Chinese power-pairing Liu-Tan in quarters. It’s as tough a draw as they can land. Women’s Doubles though, is on the up-tick with 3 Indian pairings making it to the main draw for the first time. But Ashwini Ponappa best encapsulates India’s All England conundrum. She maxed her potential and even won a Worlds bronze in 2011 in London. But Ashwini strangely couldn’t make much headway at the All England.
Kidambi Srikanth couldn’t make the main draw cut this year, but the former World Championship silver medall and Thomas Cup champion, might end up the most baffling non-winner at All E among Indians, given his talent. But ten whole years have rolled past since he reached World No 1, and it is a glum thought – he got into badminton inspired Gopichand’s All England, some might say he surpassed his mentor as India’s finest, with the World’s medal and China-Indonesia double. But that’s where the allure of All England kicks in – it remains a notch above any other Tour title in perception.
Lakshya Sen has a final and semi-finals appearance at Birmingham – two very fine forays with reel-worthy moments of defensive magic on court. He was the only MS semifinal to leave the Paris Games heartbroken, and there’s no better place than All England to roar back. His path is littered with extremely beatable names – Koki Watanabe, Jonatan Chrie, Li Shifeng/HS Prannoy, and Shi Yuqi in the top half. That would count as a good draw with Axelsen mired in the bottom half with very tricky Chinese and Japanese, besides Anders Antonsen.
The simple challenge for India’s current generation of men’s singles, four of whom have World Championship medals (though Sai Praneeth has since retired), is sealing that spot in the pantheon of legends in the absence of an Olympic medal – and nothing less than an All England would do. You suspect HS Prannoy still sheaths a very effective and clever game, which can be unleashed just for this occasion, even if his results have been indifferent overall. But one more stab at the All England – who wouldn’t want that?Story continues below this ad
Sindhu’s final peak
Which brings us to India’s greatest shuttler – PV Sindhu. It is a genuine mystery how in her dizzy high achieving years from 2016-2019, the All England didn’t transpire. There are a couple of semifinals, and it’s an open secret that she craves to tick the one box that eluded her, like it did Ratchanok Intanon.
But there’s a pervading sense of the moment having passed them . It’s not merely how dominant An Se Young is, for Sindhu in her prime earned her stripes with giant kills. But just the reality of change. It might be an All England with the highest number of unseeded WS players who are former Olympic or World Champions – Ratchanok, Nozomi Okuhara, Chen Yufei and Sindhu. Only Akane Yamaguchi has clung on in the rankings to get seeded third.
Sindhu starts against Kim Ga Eun, but Han Yue makes even a second-round sound ominous now. She can beat Gregoria Tunjung on a very good day, but odds wouldn’t lean on her side. Wang Zhi Yi, second seed, isn’t quite in the same range as Chen Yufei, He Bingjiao, let alone Xuerui Li or Yihan Wang whom she slayed a dozen years back. Except Sindhu isn’t the Sindhu of 2019 now. Her experience and sheer focus on doing well at this tournament though, might be at greatly elevated levels at this point.
Still, did Sindhu leave the All England for way too late in her career, you wonder.