When Garret Tan took a medical timeout leading 17-16 in the decider, it looked like Lakshya Sen would finally get the stroke of luck he so desperately needed.

Instead, the 18-year-old American of Taiwanese descent would jump, smash and punch his way to the biggest win of his career so far. He packed off the home favourite 19-21, 21-19, 21-17 in an hour and 13 minutes in the second round of the badminton World championships here on Wednesday.

Having scraped through his opening-round match, Lakshya, ranked 14th and a bronze medallist at the global tournament, was expected to have an easy outing against the World No. 92 Tan.

Disappointment

But, on a day Ayush Shetty had an easier time than in his sparring sessions and P.V. Sindhu broke little sweat to reach the pre-quarterfinals, Lakshya floundered against an opponent who did not allow him any space or momentum.

The contest was as much in the mind as on the court. Tan, a former junior World No. 1, packed power in his overhead and cross-court smashes that often left Lakshya stranded in the middle. He was equally impressive with his drops but the Indian managed to edge ahead by taking the opening game.

Leading 11-8 in the second game, Tan capitalised on his opponent’s mistakes at the net with high lifts to the back of the court. Every time Lakshya looked to get a foothold, his rival unleashed smashing winners.

Tan raced to a 11-4 advantage in the decider and it looked all over for Lakshya before the Indian rode on crowd support to come within striking distance. But the American’s timeout followed by a series of jump smashes ended hopes.

Ayush, meanwhile, wrapped up his match against Sri Lanka’s Dumindu Abeywickrama 21-8, 21-10 in 25 minutes and Sindhu took 10 more minutes to beat Canadian Wen Yu Zhang 21-16, 21-17 to set up a clash with Wang Zhiyi (China). Unnati Hooda, however, went down fighting 21-11, 9-21, 21-23 to 13th seed Michelle Li of Canada.

Bringing cheer

In doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto advanced with a 21-11, 21-11 win against Lok Chong Leong and Weng Chi Ng of Macau. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty got a walkover after the Scottish pair of Alexander Dunn and Adam Pringle withdrew following Dunn’s injury.

Important results:

Men: Loh Kean Yew (Sin) bt Cheuk Yiu Lee (Hkg) 15-21, 21-17, 21-15; Chou Tien Chen (Tpe) bt Giovanni Toti (Ita) 21-12, 21-11; Jonatan Christie (Ina) bt Jia Heng Teh (Sin) 19-21, 21-19, 21-11; Rasmus Gemke (Den) bt Chun-Yi Lin (Tpe) 13-21, 21-17, 21-11; Li Shifeng (Chn) bt Jun Hao Leong (Mas) 21-19, 21-19; Garret Tan (USA) bt Lakshya Sen 19-21, 21-19, 21-17; Ayush Shetty bt Dumindu Abeywickrama (SL) 21-8, 21-10. Doubles: Fajar Alfian & Muhammad Shohibul Fikri (Ina) bt Eloi Adam & Leo Rossi (Fra) 21-14, 21-13; Kang Min Hyuk & Ki Dong Ju (Kor) bt Hariharan Amsakarunan & M.R. Arjun 21-17, 21-14; Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty w/o Alexander Dunn & Adam Pringle (Sco).

Women: An Se-young (Kor) bt Thalita Ramadhani Wiryawan (Ina) 21-15, 21-11; Michelle Li (Can) bt Unnati Hooda 11-21, 21-9, 23-21; P.V. Sindhu bt Wen Yu Zhang (Can) 21-16, 21-17. Doubles: Pearly Tan & Thinaah Muralitharan (Mas) bt Bengisu Ercetin & Nazlican Inci (Tur) 21-16, 21-13.

Mixed doubles: Dhruv Kapila & Tanisha Crasto bt Lok Chong Leong & Weng Chi Ng (Mac) 21-11, 21-11.

Ayush Shetty, ahead of his badminton World championships debut against defending champion and World No. 1 Shi Yuqi, had assured: “Tomorrow is a new day, and it will be a different game.”

The youngster made good on his promise, sending the Chinese star packing on Monday for the biggest upset of the day and perhaps the entire tournament. He won 21-14, 13-21, 21-19 in 73 minutes despite a late surge from Shi that almost derailed his dream start.

With Ayush leading 17-6 in the decider, the match looked all wrapped up. But Shi stepped up, produced a few impeccable smashes that landed on the line and came up with delectable drops to make it 19-20.

For all the drama, the end was marked by the softest of returns to the back of the court, leaving Shi stranded at the net. The Indian, drained to even celebrate, sported only a slight smile.

Having lost the three previous meetings, including the Asia Championships final in April, Ayush was clearly prepared for Shi.

He started aggressively and did not allow his more fancied opponent to control the momentum.

The 21-year-old took an early lead, a sequence that included the longest rally of the match (45 shots) at 8-5. Shi kept hitting wide and over even as Ayush dived all over the court, fighting for every point. Taking full advantage of his height, the Indian mixed his jump smashes with soft net play.

But to Shi’s credit, he gradually grew into the match, but Ayush was never overwhelmed.

With Shi and his coach indulging in animated discussions during every break, the Chinese was not in full control of either his game or emotions. Despite an attempted comeback, he eventually bowed out.

Ayush’s win was the highlight of the Indian challenge on a day when the rest of the home hopefuls, including P.V. Sindhu, breezed through to the next round. Sindhu went past Ireland’s Sophia Noble 21-7, 21-11.

In doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand took just over half an hour for a 21-9, 21-13 win over Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez of Spain while Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi beat another Spanish pair, Nikol Carulla and Carmen Maria Jimenez, 22-20, 21-14.

Hariharan Amsakarunan and M.R. Arjun were leading 21-16, 6-4 when their Irish opponents Scott Guildea and Paul Reynolds conceded.

Important results: Men: Ayush Shetty bt Shi Yuqi (Chn) 21-14, 13-21, 21-19; Chou Tien Chen (Tpe) bt Clarence Villaflor (Phi) 21-12, 21-12; Toma Junior Popov (Fra) bt Dominik Kwinta (Pol) 21-19, 21-13; Anders Antonsen (Den) bt Dicky Dwi Pangestu (Aze) 21-19, 21-17. Doubles: Hariharan Amsakarunan & M.R. Arjun bt Scott Guildea & Paul Reynolds (Ire) 21-16, 6-4 ret.

Women: P.V. Sindhu bt Sophia Noble (Ire) 21-7, 21-11; Wang Zhi Yi (Chn) bt Beiwan Zhang (USA) 21-12, 21-13; An Se-young (Kor) bt Kaloyana Nalbantova (Bul) 21-14, 21-13; Mia Blichfeldt (Den) bt Keisha Fatimah Azzahra (Aze) 21-18, 21-4. Doubles: Treesa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand bt Paula Lopez & Lucia Rodriguez (Esp) 21-9, 21-13; Kavipriya Selvam & Simran Singhi bt Nikol Carulla & Carmen Maria Jimenez (Esp) 22-20, 21-14.

The badminton World championships will begin here on Monday, with the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium already buzzing with activity as players sweated it out in their final practice sessions.

The tournament, which runs until August 23, marks the return of the event to India for the first time since 2009.

World No. 2 Wang Zhiyi said: “I feel like the drift… the weather, everything is very well maintained and very good as compared to last time.” She added that the focus over the last few days had been on training rather than obsessing over opponents.

Former Olympic champion Chen Yufei was still not fully fit after retiring injured against P.V. Sindhu at the Japan Open, allowing Sindhu to reach her first final in more than two years.

“It’s better than the last match but I think it’s not 100%,” she said.

Chen played down preparing for any one rival, saying she would focus on each match. That approach could be tested later in the tournament against An Se-young, with whom she has a 14-14 record dating back to 2018. Sindhu has also proved a particularly difficult opponent for Chinese players at the World championships.

Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang are still chasing their first crown, having won bronze in 2023. They spoke of the importance of playing together as a pair, saying they “motivate each other” and quickly move on after mistakes.

Their history with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty makes the potential quarterfinal intriguing. The Liang-Wang duo had won four straight against them before the Indians finally won in Paris last year, only for the Chinese pair to respond with a win at the World Tour Finals.

On the practice courts, the intensity was evident. Sat-Chi sparred with M.R. Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan while Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila trained alongside Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde. Sindhu and Ayush Shetty traded attacking exchanges, with coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama watching on.

The Chinese aura is diminishing.

For a formidable machine that churned out winners like clockwork and has had an incredible 72 champions, Shi Yuqi is the only one who will go into the upcoming badminton World championships looking to defend his title.

Shi’s win in Paris last year ended a 10-year barren streak, the previous winner being Chen Long in 2015.

Among the women, the drought has been much longer. Yihan Wang was the last Chinese to win the title way back in 2011. No wonder, most of the queries to the ones here revolved around the pressure of expectations.

“The players of China are very good and large in number. We don’t have pressure of performance as such; it is more about learning from each other and it benefits everyone,” World No. 9 Li Shifeng said on Saturday.

It’s a recurrent theme — the power of numbers, the insistence on lack of pressure and self-belief. But there is no denying the fact that the rest of the world has successfully ended the Chinese chokehold on the sport.

Consider this: China has three women in the top 10 but only two more in top 100. The men fare better, numerically; six in top 50 and eight in top 100.

Chen Yufei has come the closest to breaking the jinx, reaching the World championships finals in two of the last three editions but going down to Akane Yamaguchi both times, including last year. Her most recent outing, at the China Open, again ended in a straight games loss to Yamaguchi.

“I think it is more about ourselves, how we prepare. There is no pressure, only an expectation to do our best. You just need to have faith in yourself and not care about anything else. My biggest obstacle is myself and if I can conquer that, I believe I can win gold,” Yufei said about the missing title in her cabinet.

The red shirts on court are always intimidating. For now, though, the pressure is on them.

Badminton Association of India copped brickbats aplenty earlier this year after the Indian Open at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi was marred by monkey intrusions, bird-related disruptions, issues with ageing infrastructure, subpar spectator facilities, and the capital’s infamous pollution.

The venue, which was originally built for the 1982 Asian Games and later renovated for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, will now open its doors again to the World championships, starting Monday, and organisers will hope to make headlines for the right reasons this time, ensuring that nothing but the sport takes centre stage.

The opportunity is doubly significant given India is set to host the next Commonwealth Games and the nation’s ambitious bid for the 2036 Olympics.

“Beyond the performance of our players, as an organiser, we want to show the world that we can host any tournament. They’re trying to bring badminton back to the Commonwealth Games, and we’re also looking at the Olympics. The government is supporting all our efforts, and I’d say this could be one of the best World championships ever,” BAI general secretary Sanjay Mishra told The Hindu.

“The main problems at the Indian Open were the pigeons and monkeys. It was also very cold back then, but none of that is going to be an issue this time around.”

That pursuit has drawn some interesting ideas, including enlisting the services of trained langur-mimicry artists, whose videos have gone viral on social media.

“You can laugh at the solution, but you have to love the effort. Our solutions may be uniquely Indian, but so are our warmth, our spirit and our hospitality,” P.V. Sindhu posted on X.

New seating, fresh wooden flooring for the courts, a modern lighting system and a waterproofed roof are the improvements that have slipped under the radar in the meantime. Sanjay revealed that BAI is working with a budget of around ₹25 crore for the tournament, with the Sports Authority of India undertaking the renovation work thus far.

“What would success at this tournament for us look like? Very simple. If there are no complaints on all fronts, unlike the Indian Open,” he said, before adding, “Besides medals for our players!”

​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.