The 18th edition of Asian Games is set to begin in Jakarta and Palembang on August 18, with 572 Indian sportspersons in contention for medals. After a successful Commonwealth Games, in which India finished third on the table with 66 medals – 26 gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze – the expectations from the Indian contingent are high.
Out of the 572 Indian sportspersons in Indonesia, 20 are badminton players. Here are their profiles:
Saina Nehwal
Date of Birth: March 17, 1990
Event at Asian Games: Women’s singles and team championship
Past performance: Bronze in team championship (2014)
Best performance so far: Bronze at London Olympics, Silver at 2015 World Championship
Brief Description: Saina Nehwal is the first female superstar of Indian badminton and is arguably the most popular shuttler in the country today. She is the first Indian shuttler to have been ranked world No 1 and was also the first badminton player from the country to win an Olympic medal – bronze in 2012. She is also the first Indian to win two singles gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. At 28, Nehwal is not the youngest but still harbours dreams of representing India at what would be her fourth Olympics in 2020. Nehwal has also never won an Asian Games medal, a record she would be looking to set straight in Jakarta.
PV Sindhu
Date of Birth: July 5, 1995
Event at Asian Games: Women’s singles and team championship
Past performance: Bronze in team championship (2014)
Best performance so far: Silver at Rio Olympics 2016, two silver medals in World Championship
Brief Description: The reigning queen of Indian badminton, PV Sindhu shot to stardom in 2016 when she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal. That’s not to say Sindhu did not achieve anything of note prior to her Rio campaign. She had broken into the world’s top 20 at the age of 17 and also was the first Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at the badminton world championships – a bronze in 2013. She bettered that record in 2017 when she won silver after an epic one-hour-50-minute battle against Nozomi Okuhara – considered one of the greatest matches of all time.
Sai Uttejitha Rao
Date of Birth: August 10, 1998
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Winner of All India Senior Ranking Tournament
Brief Description: Sai Uttejitha Rao is a former India No 1 and is a formidable player on the domestic circuit but has so far not been able to replicate her form on the international stage. The 20-year-old from Visakhapatnam is the current Andhra Pradesh state champion but has failed to get past the second round in the dozen-odd international tournaments she has taken part on the senior circuit. Uttejitha got into the Indian Asian Games squad after winning one of the selection tournaments for the event, and reaching the final of the other. Both tournaments were All India senior ranking events.
Ashmita Chaliha
Date of Birth: October 18, 1999
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Winner of All India Senior Ranking Tournament
Brief Description: Ashmita Chaliha sticks out from the other women’s singles shuttlers on the domestic circuit and not just because she is a lefty – one of the very few at the top level. What distinguishes her from most Indian women’s singles players is that she loves to attack and finish off points rather than go for rallies. The 18-year-old Assamese was picked in the Asian Games squad after winning one of the selection tournaments. She trains at the Assam Badminton Academy under Indonesian coach Edwin Iriawan.
Gayatri Gopichand
Date of Birth: March 4, 2003
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Winner of All India Junior Ranking Tournament
Brief Description: Gayatri Gopichand is only 15 years old but has courted a lot of controversy because of her second name. The daughter of chief national coach Pullela Gopichand, Gayatri has always been in the news for the wrong reasons, for no fault of her own, whenever she has been picked in Indian teams. First, for the world junior championships last year, and now, for the Asian Games. Gayatri is a talented shuttler, the India No 1 at the Under-17 level, and opts to silence her doubters on the court. She recently reached the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the two selection tournaments for the Asian Games, defeating older and higher-ranked players along the way, before winning a junior ranking tournament (U-19) as well.
Aakarshi Kashyap
Date of Birth: August 24, 2001
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Junior national champion
Brief Description: Aakarshi Kashyap is the reigning junior national champion in the Under-17 and Under-19 categories, and is one of the most promising juniors on the domestic circuit. The 16-year-old from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh used to train by herself in her hometown till last year, before moving to the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy after the junior nationals.
In the senior nationals last year, Kashyap was leading Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal by a score of 10-4 in the first game of their quarter-final match before going on to lose 17-21, 10-21. However, Kashyap has so far not been able to replicate her national form at the international level. She lost her opening match of the Asian Junior Championship in 2018 and could not go past the round of 32 at the world junior championship last year. She did, however, win the India Junior International title in August.
N Sikki Reddy
Date of Birth: August 18, 1993
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles, mixed doubles, team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at 2018 Commonwealth Games team championships
Brief Description: Sikki Reddy used to be a very promising singles player – she contested the Youth Commonwealth Games final, losing to Saina Nehwal – before a knee injury forced her to take up doubles four years ago. Sikki, just 24, has had as many as four knee surgeries, but opted to continue playing despite doctors advising otherwise.
It took some time for Sikki to pick up the doubles game and even find the right partners, until she paired up with the experienced Ashwini Ponnappa, and Pranaav Jerry Chopra. Since then, she has won the bronze in the 2016 Uber Cup and the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Ashwini Ponnappa
Date of Birth: September 18, 1989
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles, mixed doubles, team championship
Past performance (if any): Bronze in team championship in 2014, R32 in 2010
Best performance so far: Bronze at 2011 world championships (WD), gold at Commonwealth Games 2010 (WD) and 2018 (team)
Brief Description: Ashwini Ponnappa has been carrying the baton of doubles badminton in the country almost single-handedly ever since she and her doubles partner Jwala Gutta ended India’s long wait for a world championship medal since Prakash Padukone in 1983. Ashwini and Jwala followed up with their 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal with a bronze at the 2011 world championships.
Since Jwala’s retirement, Ashwini has been the senior stateswoman in Indian doubles badminton. The 28-year-old from Coorg in Karnataka was crucial in India’s gold-winning run in the team championships of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, guiding her partners Sikki Reddy and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy along the way.
Arathi Sara Sunil
Date of Birth: October 1, 1994
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles and team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Winner of All India Senior Ranking Tournament
Brief Description: Hailing from Cochin, Arathi started playing badminton when she was around eight not because she was interested in the sport but because her father wanted her to get some exercise. She did not enjoy badminton at first because she was hardly allowed on court by her coach as she was shorter than all other kids. As a result, she used to spend most of her time hitting a shuttlecock hanging on a string off the roof.
Once that beginners’ phase got over and Arathi changed her coach, her interest in the sport grew. She started off as a singles player but eventually settled on doubles because she wasn’t getting the desired results. Arathi tried out seven different partners over four years before she was asked to pair up with the teenaged Rutaparna Panda three months ago. The duo ended up winning one of the two selection tournaments for the Asian Games, reaching the semi-finals of the other. Today, they are in the Asian Games team.
Rutaparna Panda
Date of Birth: May 7, 1999
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles and team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Winner of All India Senior Ranking Tournament
Brief Description: Rutaparna Panda took up badminton along with her sister Swetaparna thanks to their father, who was also a shuttler, in Cuttack. The two played doubles together and even paired up for the senior Nationals in 2017 in Patna. This was when India doubles coach Arun Vishnu spotted Rutaparna and recommended chief coach P Gopichand to invite her to his academy in Hyderabad for a one-month camp. Till she came to Hyderabad, Panda had never worked with a proper coach before. Just over a year after joining the Gopichand academy, Rutaparna has made her mark as one of the most promising doubles shuttlers in the country. And she’s still in her teens.
Kidambi Srikanth
Date of Birth: February 7, 1993
Event at Asian Games: Men’s singles and team championship
Past performance (if any): R16 in individual and team in 2014
Best performance so far: Gold in team and silver in men’s singles at Commonwealth Games 2018
Brief Description: Srikanth used to be a doubles player till seven years ago, before chief national coach P Gopichand suggested he switch over to singles. What a useful piece of advice it turned out to be! He is the first Indian male shuttler to have reached the pinnacle of world No 1 after the rankings were computerised. He first shot to fame when he upset the legendary Lin Dan to win the China Open title in 2014 and then became the only Indian male singles player to qualify for the Rio Olympics, before losing in the quarter-finals to Lin Dan.
It was his exploits in the 2017 season that truly saw him become a superstar. Srikanth won as many as four Superseries titles in 2017, becoming the fourth most successful player in terms of overall titles behind Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan and Chen Long. In 2018, en route to the final of the Commonwealth Games, he finally reached the pinnacle – the world No 1 ranking – but only remained there briefly. Whatever Srikanth has achieved so far is quite remarkable considering he was not even serious about playing singles just seven years ago.
HS Prannoy
Date of Birth: July 17, 1992
Event at Asian Games: Men’s singles and team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at 2018 Commonwealth Games team championships
Brief Description: Kerala’s HS Prannoy first made headlines when he won the silver medal at the 2010 Youth Olympics. Prannoy announced himself on the senior circuit when he won the Indonesia Masters and Tata Open titles in 2014. The following year, he beat Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen in the India Open and the Singapore Open. His exploits took his world ranking up to 12 in 2016. Prannoy’s biggest scalps came at the 2017 Indonesia Open when he beat the legendary Lee Chong Wei and Olympic champion Chen Long on consecutive days. Prannoy’s 2018 has been plagued with injuries but he still managed to win a bronze at the Asian championships, along with a team gold at the Commonwealth Games.
B Sai Praneeth
Date of Birth: August 10, 1992
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Bronze at 2016 Asian team championships
Brief Description: After dabbling in swimming, athletics and gymnastics as a child, Sai Praneeth chose badminton as he had a natural talent for the sport after first playing it at the age of eight. Sai Praneeth announced himself to the world by winning the Singapore Superseries title in 2017, beating Srikanth in the final. However, he has been unable to replicate that form since. With pre-quarterfinal and quarterfinal appearances at the world championships in 2017 and 2018, Sai Praneeth, at 26, is running out of time to cement himself among the sport’s elite.
Sameer Verma
Date of Birth: October 22, 1994
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Bronze at 2011 world junior championship
Brief Description: Following in the footsteps of older brother Sourabh Verma, Sameer took to badminton at a young age. The shy boy from Dhar in Madhya Pradesh moved to Hyderabad to train at the Gopichand academy. Despite battling injuries in 2014, Sameer managed to win the All India Senior Ranking held in Bareilly. In 2015, not only did he defend his All India Senior Ranking title in Bareilly but also finished runner-up at the 2015 Senior Nationals held in Vijayawada.
Sameer is slowly but surely starting to fulfil his potential which once caught the eye of his coach Pullela Gopichand. In 2016, he made it to his first ever Superseries final in Hong Kong and moved into the top 30 world rankings. Sameer has steadily been making a mark on the international stage, when he became one of the six Indian male shuttlers to be ranked within the world top 50 late in 2016. In January 2017, he triumphed over fellow GoSports athlete Sai Praneeth at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold. He took a few months off competition to put a recurring shoulder niggle behind him and came back from his break to progress to the quarterfinals at the US Open Grand Prix Gold in July 2017, where he eventually fell to compatriot Parupalli Kashyap. He was also a member of the largest ever Indian contingent at the World Championships in August 2017 and is training hard for his first ever Asian Games and to get into contention for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Sourabh Verma
Date of Birth: December 30, 1992
Event at Asian Games: Team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: 2016 Chinese Taipei Masters champion
Brief Description: Sourabh Verma was introduced to badminton by his father, who is a coach, when he was a kid growing up in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. Initially, he did not quite fancy the sport, but eventually started liking it. He soon began to excel in the junior circuit and, at the age of 20, won the senior national championship in singles in 2011. That same year, he also won his first international title – the Bahrain International Challenge – along with being the runner up at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, losing to the former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat in the final.
In 2013-’14, Sourabh won three international titles almost back-to-back – the Tata Open in Mumbai, where he beat HS Prannoy in the final, the Iran Fajr International Challenge and the Austrian International Challenge. Verma missed many tournaments in 2015 with injury before losing to brother Sameer at the Tata Open. He came back stronger in 2016, reaching the finals of the Belgian and Polish Internationals, before bagging the Chinese Taipei Masters. He also reached the final of the Bitburger Badminton Open, but lost to China’s Shi Yuqi.
2017 was again a disappointing year for Sourabh as he failed to really make a mark internationally. 2018 has been slightly better, as Sourabh secured a spot in India’s Asian Games squad by performing well on the domestic circuit, before clinching the Russian Open title.
Sourabh Verma also finished at 2nd position in a neck to neck match with Simon Santoso at the 2014 Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold. He competed at the 2014 Asian Games. In November 2016, Sourabh lost to Shi Yuqi of China in the final of the Bitburger German Open.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
Date of Birth: August 13, 2000
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles, mixed doubles and team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at 2018 Commonwealth Games team championships
Brief Description: Among the brightest prospects in India’s doubles badminton contingent is a tall, muscular teenager from the tiny town of Amalapuram in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. In a country where doubles badminton hardly gets any attention, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has always preferred sharing court space. This is partly because when he started playing badminton at a local club, he never got to play by himself on his side of the court.
Prior to 2016, Satwik used to play with his good friend Krishna Prasad, who also trains at Indian national coach Pullela Gopichand’s academy along with him. However, their partnership was broken by India’s doubles coach, Tan Kim Her. Satwik and Chirag were both not happy with the decision but went along with it. Today, they would be really thankful they listened to Tan.
Satwik and Chirag, at the ages of 18 and 21, are India’s top men’s doubles pair, having produced a string of impressive results since pairing up over two years ago, beating higher-ranked pairs. Earlier this year, they also entered the world’s top 20 for the first time. The most notable of their results was a silver medal in men’s doubles at the Commonwealth Games, to go with the gold in the team event.
Satwik has also formed an impressive mixed doubles pairing with the experienced Ashwini Ponnappa. The two put up performances to remember at the 2017 Sudirman Cup, the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 world championships.
Chirag Shetty
Date of Birth: July 4, 1997
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles and team championship
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at 2018 Commonwealth Games team championships
Brief Description: Chirag Shetty took up badminton only as a means to remain fit as a child, when his father enrolled him for coaching at the Goregaon Sports Complex in Mumbai. However, he started enjoying the game and won an inter-school title at the age of 12. Chirag then joined the Uday Pawar Badminton Academy in Mumbai and was soon selected to represent Maharashtra in boys’ singles in 2011 and 2012. However, his coaches soon felt that playing doubles suited Chirag’s game. Chirag’s first doubles partner was Arjun MR from Kerala and the two played together for four years, becoming the top-ranked doubles pair in the U-17 category.
After Malaysian coach Tan Kim her joined the Indian national setup in 2015, he asked Chirag to pair up with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. Chirag and Satwik were both not happy with the decision, but went along with it. Today, they would be really thankful they listened to Tan. Chirag and Satwik, at the ages of 21 and 18, are India’s top men’s doubles pair, having produced a string of impressive results since pairing up over two years ago, beating higher-ranked pairs. Earlier this year, they also entered the world’s top 20 for the first time. The most notable of their results was a silver medal in men’s doubles at the Commonwealth Games, to go with the gold in the team event.
Manu Attri
Date of Birth: December 31, 1992
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles and team championship
Past performance (if any): QF in 2014
Best performance so far: Bronze at 2016 Asian team championship
Brief Description: Manu Attri started playing badminton when he was 10 years old at Meerut’s sports stadium. His dad, who was an athlete, was a great motivation for him to take up the sport, according to his BWF profile. After first representing India in 2011, Attri’s first title came in 2011 when he partnered with Jishnu Sanyal to win the Kenya International. However, his career really kicked off when he paired up with B Sumeeth Reddy in 2013. The duo won the Tata Open title that year and defended it the following year. Manu and Sumeeth had a good 2015, when they reached the final of the US Open Grand Prix Gold. They eventually became the first Indian men’s doubles pair to play in the Olympics in 2016. However, while Manu and Sumeeth have been able to rack up lower level titles, along with being national champions, they haven’t quite been able to crack the big stage yet. Manu has struggled with injuries and disciplinary issues with the Badminton Association of India. Already 25 years old, time is running out for him to really leave a mark at the international level.
B Sumeeth Reddy
Date of Birth: September 26, 1991
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles, mixed doubles and team championship
Past performance (if any): QF in 2014
Best performance so far: Bronze at 2016 Asian team championship
Brief Description: Sumeeth Reddy took up badminton when he was 10 years old, which is at least three to four years later than most of his compatriots had done. He had also taken up the sport only because his father, who was an athlete, wanted him to. Born in Gungal village in what is now Telangana, Sumeeth started off as a singles player and continued to be one till he was about 20. After joining the national team in 2013, he has partnered with Manu Attri in men’s doubles and continues to do so till date. He has also played mixed doubles with partners such as Pradnya Gadre, Poorvisha Ram and Ashwini Ponnappa, but only sparingly. His breakthrough title win came at the 2013 Tata Open with Attri. They also won the Canada Open in 2016 and represented India at the Rio Olympics, going out in the third round. Sumeeth and Manu are the reigning national champions but have not quite broken through at the elite level internationally. Their biggest achievement at a major international event is a bronze in the 2016 Asian team championship.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra
Date of Birth: September 6, 1992
Event at Asian Games: Men’s singles (individual and team)
Past performance (if any): R32 in 2014
Best performance so far: Gold at 2018 Commonwealth Games team championships
Brief Description: In a squad that is dominated by South Indians, Pranaav Jerry Chopra is one of the few exceptions. Jerry, as he is called by his friends and teammates, took up badminton at the age of 7 in his hometown Ludhiana as a recreational sport, before his family realised he was quite good at it. Chopra started racking up national titles at the U-13 level and it continued right up to the seniors – he is currently the national champion in mixed doubles. One of the few shuttlers in the country who took up doubles willingly from the beginning rather than being forced to switch, Chopra joined the Gopichand Academy in 2007 and has not looked back since. He won the Youth Commonwealth Games bronze in doubles in 2010 before winning the Tata Open in 2011, where he and his partner Akshay Dewalkar beat the more experienced pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas.
Chopra gave up men’s doubles at the end of 2016 to focus on mixed doubles with his partner Sikki Reddy. The two won the Syed Modi Grand Prix last year and reached the semi-finals of the Japan Open, before going on to win the national title, giving Indian fans hopes that they would soon win a major title. While Pranaav and Sikki were part of India’s team that won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, they haven’t managed to reproduce their form from last season this year. Pranaav will be hoping for a turnaround at the Asian Games.
Saina Nehwal is supported by Edelweiss.