Career:
The right handed Sai Praneeth stunned 2003 All England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia at the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold tournament
in the first round.
2013
has been a memorable year so far for Sai Praneeth B. He stunned the world by
sending back Taufik Hidayat unexpectedly early at his
home ground in front of home crowd, thus ruining his farewell from an
illustrious career as a professional badminton player. He defeated Taufik
Hidayat in the first round match of Djarum Indonesia Open 2013 by 2-1 games
with the final score being 15-21, 21-12, 21-17. Barely
a few day later on 19 June 2013, he again upstaged a much higher ranked player.
This time world number four Hu Yun of
Hong Kong in the Singapore Super Series.
At the 2016 All England Super Series Premier, Sai
Praneeth stunned the 2nd seed Lee Chong Wei of
Malaysia in the 1st Round 24-22, 22-20 in straight sets. On July
2016, he won the 2016 Canada Open Grand Prix in
the men’s singles category. In the final match played at Calgary, Praneeth
defeated Lee Hyun-il of South Korea by 21-12,
21-10 score.It is his maiden grand prix trophy. In 2017, he won the Singapore Open Super Series after
beating his compatriot Srikanth
Kidambi in rubber games,hence becoming the fourth Indian to win a
superseries title after Saina Nehwal,Srikanth Kidambi and P.V.Sindhu.
Sai Praneeth: A Badminton champion's rise from Hyderabad:
Sai Praneeth B on Sunday won the Men’s Singles in the
Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, becoming the second Indian
to have ever won the coveted trophy. Coached at the Gopichand Badminton Academy
under former-badminton-champion-turned-coach, Pullela Gopichand, Sai Praneeth
beat Indonasia’s Jonatan Christie 17-21, 21-18, 21-19 to win the title.
Currently ranked 24th in the world, the Hyderabad-born
24-year-old is no stranger to records. He kick-started his career by winning
the U-10 title. By the time he was 21, he had the U-13, U-16, U-19 titles, a
bronze in the world juniors, and a senior national title under his belt.
After a lull, the right-handed shuttler began his senior
international career in style this year when he defeated India’s Srikanth
Kidambi to win the Singapore Open on April 16, 2017.
It was a historic moment for India as the duo were the first
Indian pair to enter the finals of a ranking event in badminton. Srikanth,
incidentally, trains at the same academy as Sai Praneeth and had won the
Thailand Open in 2013.
Sai Praneeth's all-time-high ranking of 22 fell two points
early this month when he suffered consecutive losses at the India Open and the
Malaysia Open. Sunday's victory could help him level that loss.
