B Sai Praneeth, whose performance had been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, is now trying to reclaim his place among the top 25 shuttlers in the world, following his maiden National Games gold.

Praneeth was consistently beating some of the big names in the game in 2017 and he topped it off by winning the Singapore Super Series in 2017 and a World Championship bronze in 2019.

But then, with the pandemic, everything came to a standstill. From world No.10 in 2019, his ranking plummeted to 41 in September this year.

“My career was on a high since 2017. I was on top of my game and was brimming with confidence,” said Praneeth, who won the men’s badminton title at the 36th National Games here.

“But unfortunately, lockdowns were imposed. My training came to a halt. I didn’t know if I should train or play safe. I ended up sitting at home.”

He added: “I could not train properly for the Olympics (Tokyo). After that, because of a sudden overload of training, I picked up injuries too,” said the 30-year-old, who couldn’t win a single match in Tokyo.

However, he feels he is back in the groove now. “It is all about self-belief. The win over HS Prannoy will be a big boost for me going forward,” he said.

He shocked Kerala’s Prannoy in the team championship finals of the National Games. In the men’s singles final, he downed Karnataka’s Mithun Manjunath for the title.