The coveted All England Open Badminton Championship 2022, 114th edition, is all set to begin from 16th March this year and will conclude in the space of another 4 days ie 20th March. This remains the oldest championship in badminton is held on a yearly basis, the inaugural event happened in 1898 in the English town of Guildford. After bringing in BWF’s latest grading system, the championship was accorded Super Series status in 2007. It had to be cancelled from 1915-19 and 1940-46 owing to World War 1 and II.
Despite several highs in the sport of late; PV Sindhu’s silver and bronze Olympic medals, K Srikant’s number one ranking in 2018; the All England Championship title has eluded India since 2000. So, the waiting period has alarmingly gone beyond two decades. In the 2022 edition of the event, there will be a total of 128 singles competitors and 96 teams, including world champions and Olympic champions.
Previous Winners For India
For India, only two people have won the championship so far. Prakash Padukone pocketed the championship in 1980 and Pullela Gopichand grabbed the title in 2001. Since then India has been enduring a barren run of 21 years. There has been one “so near and yet so far” instance when Saina Nehwal reached the finals in 2015. The current number 7 in the world, PV Sindhu has played two semi-finals but the title has eluded her so far.
Strong Indian Contingent
Apart from cricket, badminton is the other sport where Indians have registered incredible feats over the years. Apart from Sindhu’s splendid run in the Olympics and Srikant Kidambi’s sensational run in the 2021 BWF World Championships, there is the sensational Lakshya Sen, who has generated a lot of curiosity with his on-court exploits recently.
As for Saina, she did not look as threatening as she used to be in the German Open and she has a tough opener with Thai’s Chochuwong, who is ranked 10th in the world currently. In the category of women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze winners Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are set to face off with Japan’s Kie Nakanishi and Rin Iwanaga in the first round. So, will these shuttlers end the dry spell for India as far as the prestigious badminton championship is concerned?
The Sen-sational Lakhshya
The unseeded shuttler from Almora will be the cynosure of all eyes this year. Sen has been in stupendous form for the last six months. After winning India Open and bronze at World Championships in December 2021, Sen ended up as the runners up in German Open last week. So, all these things would weigh the minds of badminton enthusiasts as he braces for his opening clash with his compatriot Sourabh Varma.
