Our Bureau
Hyderabad
World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth, the 31-year-old from Hyderabad, will now head for a coaching career in the USA. Praneeth decided to end his active playing career after battling nagging injuries since the Tokyo Games, ending a fairly successful career. He won the 2017 Singapore Open. The Indian badminton player competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and is a bronze medal winner at the BWF World Championships.
“With a mix of emotions, I pen down these words to bid farewell and announce my retirement from the sport that has been my lifeblood for over 24 years,” an emotional Sai Praneeth wrote on social media. “Today, as I embark on a new chapter, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude for the journey that brought me here.”
Praneeth will be beginning a new innings now as he is set to join as head coach of Triangle Badminton Academy in the US next month. “I will be joining mid-April. I will be the head coach of the club. So, I will be overseeing all the players there. Of course, once I am there, we will discuss elaborately about the role,” he said.
Sai Praneeth, who achieved a career-best ranking of world No. 10, also made history by becoming the second Indian man to win a medal at the BWF World Championships after the legendary Prakash Padukone, who achieved the feat in 1983.
The Hyderabad shuttler has also won two bronze medals in the men’s team events at the Asia Team Championships in 2016 and 2020. Felicitated with the Arjuna Award, Sai Praneeth won three BWF titles in his career; the Canada Open in 2016 and the Singapore Open and Thailand Open in 2017 – all in men’s singles. He is currently ranked 109th.
