​P. Gopi Chand is one of those rare athletes whose coaching legacy has eclipsed their playing career.

A former All England champion, he has been instrumental in establishing a system that produced India’s modern badminton stars, including Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu.

A few years after his now-renowned academy opened its doors, India hosted the World championships for the first time, in his backyard — Hyderabad, in 2009. India was just one of many countries taking part that year, still finding its feet on badminton’s biggest individual stage.

Seventeen years on, the tournament returns to Indian soil, with New Delhi playing host this time.

In those years, the country has bagged 15 medals at the Worlds, including Sindhu’s historic gold in 2019.

Ahead of the showpiece that gets underway on Monday, a conversation with Gopi Chand kept circling back to a question he has fielded for years, in one form or another: how do you measure today’s generation against his own? His answer was unambiguous: you don’t.

“I think it would be very unfair to compare or even think of comparisons. Today’s challenges are today’s, and today’s opportunities are today’s. Back in the day, our aspirations and our outlook were limited. Today, the kids are a lot more aware and their horizons are much bigger. They step in with an ‘I want to be a World champion’ kind of attitude,” he told The Hindu.

For Gopi Chand, it’s a shift shaped as much by opportunity as by ambition.

“Back in the day, we wanted to play well, avoid injuries and get a job. That is all we thought about.” That is not the case today. Across generations, there are very different mindsets and aspirations.”

For the 52-year-old, that revelation has also been personal. His daughter, Gayatri, has carved out her own career — and he was careful to draw a line between his achievements and hers.

“She’s done well. She’s a (double) Commonwealth Games medallist, got to two All England semifinals and is the highest-ranked women’s doubles player the country has ever produced. Forget about what I have done. As a parent, that makes me happy and proud. I’m rejoicing at what she’s doing and I don’t want my All England (triumph) to overshadow the phenomenal job she is doing.”

For all the generational gaps he pointed to, Gopi Chand was clear about where Indian badminton goes from here.

“I’m looking forward to the next generation of champions. And India hosting the World championships again should catapult that jump and there’s a huge opportunity for us to propel further”.

For over a decade, H.S. Prannoy has been Indian badminton’s quiet engine – the fighter who kept turning up, grinding and powering the country’s rise on the world stage when the spotlight was elsewhere. But this year, the story has moved on without him.

As the World championships arrive in New Delhi, the responsibility of carrying India’s flag has passed to a new generation – Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty – while Prannoy watches from the sidelines.

It’s a symbol of transition, and to his credit, the 34-year-old doesn’t dodge it. He​’s candid, almost disarmingly so, even as he insists the torch hasn​’t left his hands just yet.

“I’m not ready to give up the torch. I’ll still try for another year or two,” Prannoy told The Hindu.

“But as a player, you come to terms with the fact that there might be tough years in your career, and honestly, the last two years have been difficult for me. You always want to play at the top level, and when that doesn’t happen, you’re disappointed. I would’ve loved to play in New Delhi next week.”

But disappointment, for Prannoy, ​doesn’t curdle into self-pity. Instead, the veteran reaches for perspective – a decade-plus career’s worth of it.

“The problem with us players is that ​we forget what ​w​e did in the last 15 years and only think about what’s coming next. You never really appreciate what happened before. I don’t even remember how many World championships I’ve played​! At this point, it’s important to acknowledge that we did what we could, and this year I couldn’t; I wasn’t at my best in the last few months and didn’t qualify. And that’s okay.”

For Prannoy, the changing of the guard isn’t just an inevitability he’s grudgingly accepted. It’s a cause he actively fights for, every single day on the training court.

“The next generation does have to take over eventually. Someone like me, at the age of 34 or 35, shouldn’t still be ahead of a lot of the younger players. Honestly, they should beat me at this age, they’re faster than me. I keep telling them this so that I also stay on my toes in training. I’ve always loved that push, and it’s part of why I’ve exceeded what I thought I was capable of.”

And that same competitive fire, the thing that has always driven him, is what keeps him from walking away just yet.

“I still feel that over the next two years I’ll put in everything to get back to the top 10. So it’s something where you keep telling the youngsters it’s not good enough yet, but you also keep checking whether they’re arriving at the right rankings at the right time. I’m not ready to give up the torch because deep down, if the body allows it, I’ll still be there and I’m not going to stop on an easy note,” he explained.

“I’ll try hard until the last day and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work out, I’m completely okay with that. This tournament is a reminder of how much someone like K. Srikanth and I wanted to play there but couldn’t, and I’m sure it’ll push us both for the next six months, hoping that at the next big event we can be back at the top.”

Until that day comes, one thing is clear: Prannoy isn’t ready to be written off. And neither, in his mind, is Srikanth.