Indian badminton players won big at the Canada Open in Calgary on Sunday. B Sai Praneeth won the final of the men's singles while the Rio-bound pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy were victorious in the men's doubles event of the $55,000 Grand Prix tournament.
The 23-year-old Praneeth, seeded fourth, beat South Korea's Lee Hyun Il 21-12 21-10 in a match that lasted less than half an hour at the Markin MacPhail Centre. The Indian player had beaten Brice Leverdez of France in the semi-final.
Attri and Reddy, who became the first Indian men's doubles pair to qualify for the Rio Olympics, defeated Canada's Adrian Liu and Toby Ng 21-8, 21-14 to win the doubles title. The top-seeded Indian duo had beaten Indonesia's Andrei Adistia and Canada's Dong Adam in their semi-final.
Plagued by injuries and indifferent form, Praneeth has been making early exits from tournaments for quite a few years now. But he has shown occasional burst of brilliance from time to time like when he beat 2003 All England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (Malaysia) at Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold tournament in June 2013 or when he ruined the farewell party of Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat, a former World and Olympic champion, in the first round of Djarum Indonesia Open in 2013.
At the All England Championships this year, Praneeth had defeated two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia) in the first round. However, a title had always eluded him - till now.
The Badminton World Federation's Grand Prix tournaments are classified as Level 3 events, one below Superseries. The highest level of Grand Prix event is the Grand Prix Gold with a prize pool of $120,000 minimum and Grand Prix with $50,000 minimum.