Year Ender 2023: Satwik-Chirag Dominance To Sindhu’s Struggles – The Highs & Lows Of Indian Badminton

The year 2023 was a mixed year in Badminton for Indian shuttlers as men broke several records, but the seasoned women's singles star struggled on her return to court from injury lay-off.

Indian badminton stars secured several titles, including Asian Games gold, silve and bronze, during the course of the year with the top doubles pair from the country, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty carrying their momentum from 2022 with singles star HS Prannoy.

While Satwik-Chirag and Prannoy had a decent run in 2023, seasoned stars like PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth struggled to find form. Srikanth was part of the Asian Games silver-winning team, but Sindhu failed to find her touch from 2022.

Apart from the BWF World Tour title wins by Satwik-Chirag and Prannoy, youngster Ayush Shetty also announced his arrival with a bronze medal in BWF Junior World Championships tournament. Here is a look back at some of the highs and lows in 2023 for Indian badminton:

Satwik-Chirag Rise To World Number 1 and Khel Ratna

The top Indian doubles pair of Rankireddy and Shetty opened their medal account in the year 2023 with a bronze as part of the Indian team in the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships.

The duo then won their first BWF World Tour title in 2023 as a pair in the Swiss Open, beating the Chinese pair of Ren Xiangyu and Tan Qiang in the final before going on to be crowned as Asian Champions after winning the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships held in Dubai.

Shetty and Rankireddy won their first BWF World Super 1000 title by defeating Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the final of Indonesia Open 2023. With this triumph, the duo became the first men's doubles pair from India to win the event.

Exactly a month later, the top Indian men's doubles pair went on to win Korea Open 2023 men's doubles title after victory over Indonesian Pair Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

In the Asian Games, the duo were part of the silver-winning men's team and followed that with a historic gold in the men's doubles category at the games following a victory in the title clash against South Korea's Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho.

The duo, who missed the next few tournaments, later made a brilliant comeback as their run in 2023 saw them create history as they became the first Indian doubles pair, across all three doubles categories, to be ranked No.1 in the world.

Satwik-Chirag pair ended the year with a runners up finish in the China Masters 2023, where they went down fighting in the final to Chinese pair Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang.

However, the year saw them become the first Indians to win at all levels of the World Tour, and the Sports Ministry crowned the year with a Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for the Indian duo.

Prannoy Ends Long-Wait

The 31-year-old Kerala-born star continued his resurgent run from 2022 with a few medals to show for in 2023, starting with a bronze as part of the Indian team in the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships.

Prannoy, who was a lone fighter for India in most tournaments on the BWF World Tour this year, clinched his first Super 500 title with a victory over China's Weng Hongyang in the Malaysia Masters 2023 final. He also finished runners up to the same opponent in Australian Open.

In August, he went on to win his first medal at the BWF World Championships with a bronze in the men's singles category before winning a silver with the men's team in the Asian Games, where he also ended India's 41-year wait for a second medal in men's singles event with a historic bronze.

Sindhu's Struggles!

The former World Champion, who had a brilliant 2022 in which she won a Commonwealth Games gold, missed action at the end of last year due to injury, but she made her comeback as early as January in 2023.

On her return from the injury lay-off, Sindhu has unfortunately made seven first round exits and second round exits, including the World Championships. She also made three quarterfinal exits this year, including the Asian Games, where she ended without a medal.

In the Asian Games, Sindhu, who led the women's team, failed to guide the team to a medal after a quarterfinal exit. In the singles event, Sindhu once again made an exit in the quarterfinal, ending the year on a low.

Srikanth Fails To Carry Form From 2022

Srikanth was part of a team that won medal in 2023, but the seasoned singles star failed to impress in individual events on the BWF World Tour and the Asian Games. He reached only as far as the quarter-final in the events he competed at this year.

Lakshya Sen Wins One Title in Disappointing Year

Sen, who was part of the bronze wining Indian team in the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships earlier this year, won the Canada Open title following victory over China's Li Shifeng in the final.

However, the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold winner failed to get past the semi-final in most tournaments on the BWF World Tour, and also failed to make the cut for the Indian team or contingent for the Asia Games.

Ayush Shetty's Junior Medal

Shetty won a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Championships 2023 in Spokane, USA. This was India's 11th medal at the junior badminton world championships. In 2023, Shetty won silver medals in Bahrain International Series and the Odisha Masters.

Tanisha Crasto, Ashwini Ponnappa, Dhruv Kapila, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Kiran George also won titles in the BWF World Tour Super 100 tournaments this year.

Crasto won the women's doubles titles in Abu Dhabi Masters and Guwahati Masters with senior Ponnappa, and the youngster also won the mixed doubles title in Odisha Masters with Kapila.

Meanwhile, George and Karunakaran won men's singles titles at the Indonesia Masters Super 100 I and Odisha Masters respectively as they made good strides in becoming prominent players in Indian men's singles events.