When PV Sindhu was overpowering, outpacing and pasting Nozomi Okuhara at the St JakobShalle arena in August, India seemed destined for greater heights in Badminton year 2019. Yet disappointingly, that World Badminton Championship conquest remains India’s highest peak in a sport India have arguably developed the most in recent times. Sindhu clobbered Japanese Okuhara in 37 minutes to become the first-ever Indian to clinch a World Badminton Championship title. That aside, India struggled for most of BWF World Tour 2019 and ended the season with only Sindhu in the top 10 rankings across both men’s and women’s categories. Most Tweeted Handles in Sports 2019 - Female: PV Sindhu, Hima Das, Sania Mirza & Other Top Female Twitter Profiles in India.

India’s happy episode at the World Badminton Championship wasn’t, however, only limited to Sindhu’s historic victory. B Sai Praneeth created his own legacy by clinching the nation’s first men’s singles BWF world championship medal after a wait of 36 years. The 27-year-old’s highlight at the World Championship were the straight-set wins over World No 8 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and the 4th ranked Jonatan Christie before he was halted by eventual winner Kento Momota. Sindhu’s gold at the BWF World Championships put her in the company of Chinese Zhang Ning as the only two women to have won five or more medals at the biggest stage of badminton.

But the Worlds medal was the only shine in an otherwise bleak year for Sindhu, who with time has already outstripped Saina Nehwal as India’s face in the Badminton universe. The 24-year-old, who won five silver, World Tour Finals title and played six finals in 2018, was inconsistent throughout the year. She came second to Akane Yamaguchi in the Indonesia Open and that with the World Championship title were the only two medals the former No 2 managed in 2019.

The story of Indian badminton in the year 2019 belonged to the fringe players – Sai Praneeth, Sourabh Verma, Lakshya Sen and doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Often overlooked and understated in presence of the more fancied Sindhu, Saina and Srikanth, these shuttlers carried India’s baton with some scintillating victories in the elite tournaments of BWF 2019 season.

Lakshya Sen, India’s proverbial future in men’s badminton circuit, won two Super 100 medals showing enough glimpses of why year 2020 could be big for him and the Indian men’s badminton team. Sen, the 2018 Youth Olympics and Asian Junior Champion, won a total of 6 medals which includes a runner-up medal at the Polish Open.

Sai Praneeth, who emulated Indian badminton great Prakash Padukone by clinching the bronze medal at the 2019 World Badminton Championships, reached the final of Swiss Open and won the silver medal. He beat compatriot Sameer Verma and reigning Olympic champion Chen Long in straight sets to make the final at Switzerland and was also India’s most improved player in 2019. Praneeth finished 2019 as the highest-ranked Indian men in the BWF world rankings moving as high as 11th rank. He surpassed former World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth, who dropped to 12th after managing only a silver medal in 2019.

Sourabh Verma was another player, who enjoyed a fair amount of success in 2019. The 26-year-old won as many as 4 medals in 2019 with three of those coming from the 2019 BWF World Tour. Verma, won the Hyderabad Open and Vietnam Open while also claiming for the silver medal at the Syed Modi International before also winning the Slovenian International tournament to cup-off a good year.

India’s first men’s doubles pair to win a super 500 level badminton tournament, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scripted history when they won the Thailand Open in July. The duo followed it up with a runner-up medal at the French Open and were deservedly named among the Most Improved Player of the Year. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy—Chirag Shetty beat every doubles pair bar one and also broke into the World Top 10 rankings.

The rest, however, disappointed with Saina Nehwal only winning the Indonesia Masters before injuries and bad form saw her make first-round exits in more than 4 tournaments. Women’s pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went better and crushed out of first rounds in 13 competitions and thus culminated a disappointing year for India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 26, 2019 10:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).