Kashyap - Another Ace Shuttler in the Making
Parupalli Kashyap is not exactly what you call an ‘up and coming’ badminton player. Infact, he has been on the badminton circuit for quite a while now, slowly building upon his reputation and working on his repartee. He might be quite as well-known as his peers who are heavy weights such as Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal et al but this 26 year old is well on the road to cementing his place in the badminton field. The year 2012 has been particularly an important milestone in Parupalli Kashyap profile and career graph.
Kashyap enrolled into S.M. Arif’s training camp in Hyderbad, India, when he was just eleven years old. He briefly trained with the Padukone Academy in Bangalore before he moved on to Gopichand Academy, presided over by the former All England Open Badminton Champion- Pullela Gopichand. His professional career did not kick off until the year 2005 when he won the boys' singles title at the National Junior Open Badminton Championships, while representing Andhra Pradesh. He started participating in International Tournaments the following year.
His first significant movement was when he defeated Przemysław Wacha, the then World No. 19, at the pre-quarter finals. The players had another show down few months down the lane, where again Kashyap emerged successful. This win gave him and his mentor the confidence boost they needed. The same year, he represented India at the 2006 Asian Games. He then proceeded to capture a gold medal for Andhra Pradesh at the 33rd National Games. Year 2007 was equally advantageous to the prolific player. He went on to win other International tournaments. In 2008, he was the runner up at the Thailand International, Spanish Open as well as the Toulouse Open. His only notable achievemnt in 2009 was coming in third at the Singapore Super Series. The following year he won a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He also reached the semi final round of the Indian Open Grand Prix that year.
After a rather uneventful 2011, he managed to be a semi finalist at the 2012 Djaram Indonesia Open. He created Indian Badminton history when he reached the quarterfinals of the 2012 London Olympics, becoming the first Indian male to do so. This elevated his worldwide ranking to a 19th position. His latest triumph at the Syed Modi International India Grand Prix coupled with Parupalli Kashyap statistics promoted him to a sixteenth rank.
