Meet the new stars of Indian Badminton

Anup Sridhar (b. April 11, 1983)

• Current World Ranking: 40
• 2008: His highest world ranking of 24 was achieved in early 2008. He started 2008 by winning the prestigious Pramod Mahajan All-India ranking tournament in New Delhi and followed that up by reaching the pre-quarterfinals of the Proton Malaysia Super Series where he lost to Hyun Il Lee, the eventual runner-up. He was also honoured with the Arjuna Award this year.
• 2007: Anup ended the year as the top Indian badminton player with a ranking of 25. He reached the semifinals at the German Open and the Asian Badminton Championships and the quarterfinals at the Thailand Open and at the 2007 World Championships. He earned the giant-killer tag after defeating Taufik Hidayat (former world no. 1, gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2005 World Champion) at the World Championships in what was one of the longest matches of the tournament
• Interestingly, Anup has embraced the Internet and maintains a blog that provides great insights into the life of a badminton player.

Arvind Bhat

• Current World Ranking: 37
• 2008: Runner-up at the Bitburger Open Grand Prix in Oct 2008, Quarter-finalist at the Yonex Belgian International Badminton championships in Sep 2008
• 2007: Quarter-finalist at the Italian International and Russian Open in Dec 2007

Chetan Anand (b. July 8, 1980)

• One of the best male badminton players produced by India, Chetan Anand is the reigning National badminton champion (2008) and an Arjuna Award (2007) winner. He was also the National Badminton Champion in 2004 and 2007.
• Current World Ranking: 20
• 2008: Chetan has done really well at International Events in 2008. He reached the Finals of the Indian Open Grand Prix where he finished Second to Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand. Subsequently, he won the Spanish Open in Madrid and the Nepal Open. He has again broken into the top 20 of world badminton.
• 2006: Chetan lead India through to the Thomas Cup prelimanaries to qualify for the Finals. He got the better of NG Wie and gave really good starts to the Indian Men’s campaign. He also regained his men’s singles spot for the Common Wealth Games in Melbourne where he won an individual bronze.
• 2005: In August 2005, Chetan won the Sri Lankan Satellite and also the same month he played the Quarter Finals of Asian Badminton Championship. He then left to Denmark for a stint with Mr. Morten Frost for 3 moths in Denmark to train under him. In 2005 December, Chetan won back-to-back titles The Irish Open and The Scottish Open and reached a career-high world rank of 20.
• 2004:  He announced his arrival on the international scene by winning the Toulouse Open in November 2004. 

P Kashyap

• Current World Ranking: 47
• 2008: Semi-finalist at Dutch Open Grand Prix (Oct 2008) and Quarter-finalist at Bulgaria Open Grand Prix and Bitburger Open Grand Pix (Oct 2008) and at the Singapore International Series (May 2008).

Jwala Gutta (b. September 7, 1983) - Seven times National Badminton Doubles Champion, she is one of the best Women’s Doubles Badminton players produced by India in recent times partnering with Shruti Kurien-Kanetkar. As pretty as her game, she is the wife of three times National Badminton Champion Chetan Anand.

Saina Nehwal (b. March 17, 1990)

• Current World Ranking: 11
• 2008: At Beijing, Saina became the first Indian woman to reach the badminton singles quarterfinals at the Olympics upsetting world number five and fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarter-finals Saina lost a close gamer to world number 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. In Sep 2008, she won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open and reached the semi-final in the China Masters Super Series. More recently in Oct 2008, Saina went on to win the Gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune.
• 2006: Saina appeared on the global scene when she became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open. Seeded 86, she went on to stun several top seeded players including Huaiwen XU and Julia Xian Pei Wong of Malaysia for the title. The same year also saw Saina as runner up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships, where she lost a hard fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan.

Shruti Kurien-Kanetkar - Seven times National Badminton Doubles Champion, she is one of the best Women’s Doubles Badminton players produced by India in recent times partnering with Jwala Gutta. The pair is ranked 22 in the world.