HYDERABAD: A week after Indian commuters dominated the Commonwealth Games, there is a new junior world No. 1 from another part of India in Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian. The boy from Chennai has become the new world No. 1 in the boys singles category according to the latest ranking published by the world badminton federation (BWF) Tuesday.
Sankar is the first commuter from Tamil Nadu to achieve this feat and the fourth Indian boy after Aditya Joshi (Madhya Pradesh) in 2014, Siril Verma of Telangana in 2016 and Lakshya Sen from Uttarakhand in 2017. Among them, only Lakshya Sen managed to stand out in the senior circuit.
Sankar benefited from the BWF’s decision to unfreeze the ranking points in August. Ranking points were frozen after the All England Championships in March 2020 due to the pandemic situation.
Excited after topping the leaderboard, Sankar told ToI he expected it. “I am delighted to have become No. 1 at the junior level. We actually expect that because the BWF will take three tournaments in the senior category to decide the ranking,” said Sankar, who was No. 2 a year ago. a few weeks.
With Tasnim Mir from Gujarat already No. 1 in the junior girls category, there are two Indian No. 1s at the junior level. Only Saina Nehwal in 2015 and Kidambi Srikanth in 2018 achieved this feat in the senior category. Despite her splendid achievements, where she had won almost everything in the world except Olympic gold, PV Sindhu could only achieve second place.
Sankar, 18, trains at Fireball Badminton Academy in Chennai under Aravindan Samiappan. In fact, Aravindan became Sankar’s personal trainer about 10 years ago. The teenager started learning the nuances of the game at Fireball in 2009.
Ever since he started competing in international tournaments, Sankar has impressed with his performances. He won the Junior White Nights tournament in Russia in 2021 and triumphed at the Iran Junior International Series the same year. He finished second in Varun Kapuranother promising commuter, at the Uganda International Tournament.
Sankar is confident of making a good impact at senior level as well. His first goal is to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. “My goal is to participate in the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. Indians will qualify for men’s singles if they are in the top 16 in the world rankings. To achieve this dream, Sankar must be in the same league as Lakshya, Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sai Praneesh. Lakshya could be Sankar’s inspiration as he became India’s top commuter within two years of entering the senior circuit.
The boy from Tamil Nadu is a huge fan of multiple world and Olympic champion Lin Dan from China. “I’m a big fan of Lin Dan. I like his style and I want to play it,” said Sankar, who is also a lefty like Lin Dan.
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