Wikipedia - B. Sai Praneeth
Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth (born 10 August 1992) is an Indian former badminton player. He became the first Indian male shuttler in 36 years to win a bronze medal in the BWF World Championships in 2019 after Prakash Padukone in 1983. Sai Praneeth was honoured with the Arjuna Award in 2019. His parents are Seshadri Deekshitulu and Madhavi Latha of Palakollu, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. His maternal aunt was a national level badminton player.
History
Sai Praneeth is an India badminton player who currently trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. The right-handed Indian stunned the 2003 All England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia at the 2013 Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold tournament in the first round.
In 2013, Praneeth defeated Taufik Hidayat unexpectedly early in front of a home crowd. He defeated Taufik Hidayat in the first round match of the Djarum Indonesia Open 2013, with the final score being 15-21, 21-12, 21-17. A few days later, on 19 June 2013, he again upstaged a much higher ranked Hu Yun of Hong Kong in the Singapore Super Series.
At the 2016 All England Super Series Premier, Sai Praneeth defeated the 2nd seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the 1st Round 24-22, 22-20 in straight games. In July 2016, he won his maiden Grand Prix title, the 2016 Canada Open Grand Prix in the men's singles category. In the final match played at Calgary, Sai Praneeth defeated Lee Hyun-il of South Korea 21-12, 21-10. In 2017, he won the Singapore Open Super Series after beating compatriot Srikanth Kidambi in the final in three games, hence becoming the fourth Indian to win a superseries title after Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi and P. V. Sindhu.
In 2019, Praneeth won a bronze medal at the BWF World Championships in Basel, Switzerland after losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Kento Momota. In his route to the semifinal, he beat sixth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in the third round and the reigning Asian Games Champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the quarterfinals.
Praneeth qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he was seeded thirteenth. However, he made a shock exit at the group stage after losing to Misha Zilberman of Israel and Mark Caljouw of Netherlands.
Praneeth announced his retirement through his social media account Instagram on 4 March 2024. He will start a new journey as a coach in the United States.