The Indian shuttlers had a decent year in terms of winning titles during 2019. With the Olympics around the corner, the likes of PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth tasted little success. The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty proved their worth by reaching their career-best rankings of 7th.
In January, Saina Nehwal won the Indonesian Masters as her opponent Carolina Marin could not continue due to an injury. After that performance, the 2008 Olympic bronze medallists did replicate her form losing in the first-round matches.
In March, Sai Praneeth had a brilliant outing reaching the finals before losing to Shi Y Q of China in three sets by 21-19, 18-21, 12-21. Kidambi Srikanth also performed brilliantly in the India Open played at Siri Fort Complex, New Delhi but lost to Vixtor Axelsen of Denmark by 7-21, 20-22.
In July 2019, Parupalli Kashyap lost in the finals of Super 100 Canada Open to Li Shifeng of China in three sets by 22-20, 14-21, 17-21. He also played in the Korea Open to reach the semi-finals before losing to Kento Momota
PV Sindhu played good badminton in the Super 1000 Indonesia Open that took place from 17th July 2019. She lost to Akane Yamaguchi in two straight sets by 15-21, 16-21. She became the first Indian player to win the BWF World Championship title by beating Nozomi Okuhara in two straight sets. After that, she failed to replicate her form losing in the first or 2nd rounds at Japan Open, China Open, Denmark Open. In the BWF World tour finals, she could not defend her title.
Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty created history winning the Super 500 Thailand Open beating Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China in three grueling sets by 19-21, 21-18, 21-18. She then reached the semi-finals of the Super 750 French Open.
Sourabh Verma won the Super 100 Hyderabad Open beating Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in three sets by 21-13, 14-21, 21-16. He won the Super 100 Vietnam Open. Apart from the finished runners up in Super 300 Syed Modi International tournament played in Lucknow.
Lakshya Sen had a great season winning the Super 100 Dutch Open and SaarLor Lux Open played in Germany in October-November.
