How Sai Praneeth ended India’s 36-year wait for a men’s singles Worlds medal

Sai Praneeth ended 36 years of wait for a medal after winning a bronze at the BWF World Championship. (CREDIT: Reuters/Facebook) 5 min readJul 26, 2026 08:41 AM IST First published on: Jul 26, 2026 at 08:41 AM IST Neither the 36-year wait for a men’s singles World Championship medal since Prakash Padukone, nor the fact that he had lost in the quarterfinals in 2018, weighed heavily on B Sai Praneeth ahead of the 2019 Basel World’s. He insists, seven years on, that keeping only the next step in mind helped him land a bronze, even as Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy followed in subsequent years. “It’s Jonatan Christie. I had a chance to beat him,” he would tell himself. 2019 will always be remembered for the PV Sindhu gold. But on an adjacent court, a classical strokemaker undaunt