HS Prannoy was one of India’s earliest men’s medallists at the World Junior Championships, winning bronze alongside B Sai Praneeth. They won it in 2010, the year Viktor Axelsen became champion. Both went on to win Senior World Championship bronze medals – Sai in 2019, and Prannoy later in 2023. Prannoy’s biggest Tour title at Malaysia too came in 2022, a dozen years after he was dubbed a prodigy. Sometimes, success takes time. Even the greatest Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei won only bronze at the World Juniors, incidentally in the same edition in 2000. For both Prannoy (an identified prodigy who won it all in juniors) and Srikanth (a reluctant genius who won nothing in juniors and suddenly started winning in singles after being dragged out of doubles), resilience has been a large part of their career journeys. Indian women’s singles has two success stories of women who started winning early at 17-18.…