All England Open Badminton Championships: How successful have Indian shuttlers been at this event?
Despite the emergence of the World Championships as an annual event, the All England Championships have retained their old prestige. Currently, the tournament is officially a Super 1000 event on the BWF World Tour – the highest category on the tour.
Prakash Padukone made history when he became the first Indian to win the All England title in 1980. India’s next title at this event came in 2001 when Pullela Gopichand won the men’s singles title. Apart from these two legends, no Indian, in any category, has gone all the way at this tournament.
Padukone managed to reach the final in the year following his win, 1981, losing to the same person he defeated in the final of the 1980 edition – Indonesia’s Liem Swie King.
Lean pickings for India in women's singles division of All England Open
Surprisingly, neither Saina Nehwal nor PV Sindhu have been able to win the All England title. Nehwal came close in 2015, losing to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the final.
However, Sindhu’s record in the tournament is rather strange. From 2016 to 2019, the former world champion made it a habit to reserve her best for big events and reach their finals. But in the All England events, she has been unable to reach the final even once. Reaching the semis twice has been her best effort so far.
This is very surprising for a player who has reached the final of the World Championships thrice, including winning the title in 2019. Somehow, she hasn’t come up with her best for this event.
Lakshya Sen sprung a surprise in 2022 All England Open
Rising star Lakshya Sen stunned the world of badminton by reaching the final of the 2022 All England Championships. However, he was easily undone by Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Interestingly, a runner-up finish came India’s way as far back as 1947, when Prakash Nath reached the final in the first edition of the tournament held since 1939 (due to World War II). It took more than three decades for India to have another person in the final.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are India's biggest medal hopes
India’s biggest hope for a medal this year will be the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. These two have earned great laurels for India at the top level in the last few years. But even they have failed to make a big mark on the event.
In last year’s edition, the Satwik-Chirag pair lost in the second round to China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang. In 2022, they had only done slightly better, reaching the quarter-finals before losing to the famous Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
This year, India would hope for more success, including gold in the men’s doubles category. The pair of Satwik-Chirag is India’s best hope of finding a place on finals day for the first time since 2015, and of winning the country’s first All England title since 2001.