Hyderabad: A week after Indian shuttlers dominated the Commonwealth Games, a new junior world No. 1 has arrived from another part of India. Shankar Muthusamy Subramaniam. Chennai boy became the new world No. 1 in boys’ singles category, as per the latest rankings released by badminton world federation (BWF) on Tuesday.
Shankar is the first shuttler from Tamil Nadu to achieve this feat and the fourth Indian player after this. Aditya Joshi (Madhya Pradesh) in 2014, Cyril Verma Telangana in 2016 target army from Uttarakhand in 2017. Among them, only Lakshya Sen made it to the senior circuit.
Shankar benefited from the BWF’s decision to defreeze the ranking points this August. The ranking points were frozen after the All England Championships in March 2020 due to the pandemic situation.
An excited Shankar told TOI after topping the rankings that he was looking forward to it. “I am thrilled to be No. 1 at the junior level. We are really looking forward to it as BWF will take three tournaments from the senior category to decide the rankings.”
with tasneem miro Gujarat is already No.1 in the Junior Girls category, there are two No.1s from India at the Junior level. In 2015 only Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanto Achieved this feat in the senior category in 2018. Despite her stupendous achievements, where she won almost everything in the world except Olympic gold, PV Sindhu could only reach the No. 2 rank.
Eighteen-year-old Shankar trains under Aravindan Samiyappan at the Fireball Badminton Academy in Chennai. Actually, Aravindan became Shankar’s personal coach about 10 years ago. Kishor started learning the nuances of the game in 2009 in Fireball.
Ever since he started participating in international tournaments, Shankar impressed with his performance. He won the Junior White Knights tournament in Russia in 2021 and went on to win the Iran Junior International Series in the same year. he was the runner-up Varun KapoorAnother promising shuttler in the Uganda International tournament.
Shankar is confident of making a good impact at the senior level as well. His first goal is to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. “My goal is to compete in the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. I know it is difficult but I will work hard to achieve it,” said Shankar. Only two Indians will qualify for men’s singles if they break into the top-16 in the world rankings. To make this dream a reality, Shankar needs to be in the same league as Lakshya, Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sai Prannoy. Lakshya could be an inspiration for Shankar as he became the top Indian shuttler within two years of entering the senior circuit.
This boy from Tamil Nadu is a big fan of multiple world and Olympic champion Lin Dan of China. “I am a huge fan of Lin Dan. I love his style and I want to play him,” said Shankar, who is also a southpaw like Lin Dan.
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