Badminton

Badminton is played widely in India and it is one of the most popular sports in India. Badminton is a fast growing sport in India. Badminton's popularity has grown in recent years. Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, K. Srikanth and P.V. Sindhu are ranked amongst top-10 in current BWF ranking. Prakash Padukone was the first player from India to achieve world no.1 spot in the game and after him K. Srikanth made it to the top spot as male player for second time in April 2018 and Saina Nehwal is the first female player from India to achieve World no.1 spot in April 2015. The most successful doubles player from India is Jwala Gutta, who is the only Indian to have been ranked in the top-10 of two categories. She peaked at no. 6 with Valiyaveetil Diju in mixed doubles and at no. 10 with Ashwini Ponnappa in women's doubles. Other successful players include Aparna Popat, Pullela Gopichand, Syed Modi, Chetan Anand, Parupalli Kashyap, Prannoy Kumar, Ashwini Ponnappa, Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and N. Sikki Reddy. Padukone and Gopichand, both won the All England Open in 1980 and 2001 respectively making them the only Indians to ever win the prestigious title. At the 2012 London Olympic Games, Nehwal won the bronze medal in the individual women's competition, the first for the country in badminton and in the next edition at Rio 2016 P.V.Sindhu won silver in Women's singles, 2nd medal in badminton for India. India has won medals at the BWF World Championships as well, with Padukone winning in 1982. The doubles pairing of Gutta and Ponnappa became the first women to win the medal when they won the bronze in 2011. Sindhu won consecutive medals at 2013 and 2014 editions. Nehwal won a silver at 2015 Championships. Saina is the only gold medalist for India in BWF World Junior Championships, won in 2008, where as Sindhu and Lakshya Sen are the only gold medalists in Badminton Asia Junior Championships in their respective category for the country, won in 2012 and 2018.