Leroy Francis D'Sa (born 12 October 1953) is a retired Indian badminton player. D'sa is one of the first finest doubles player country has ever produced, and he dominated the Indian doubles internationally until late 80s. D'sa is the only player from India ever to have managed to claim four Asian games medals, until now as of 2018 games, his record remains intact. He initially learned the basics of the sport in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

where his father was posted in

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

. Further he moved to Kanpur then

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

to develop his game even more. In Mumbai he was employed by the Railway in 1974. Indian contingent went on to win silver at the 1983 Asian championships in Calcutta. D'sa was part of that team. The same year he won Austrian International in men's doubles with Partho Ganguly. Again at the Asian games in 1986, he bagged men's team medal. He was one of the only players to have medalled from India at the individual events in Asian games until for next 36 years. In 1982, D'sa claimed two bronze medals in men's and mixed doubles with

Pradeep Gandhe Pradeep Gandhe is an Indian badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player ...

and Kanwal Thakar Singh in a scratch pairing. Usually D'sa played men' doubles with Sanat Mishra in international circuit. He has 7 national championship titles to his name with different partners,

Prakash Padukone Prakash Padukone (born 10 June 1955) is a former Indian badminton player. He was ranked World No. 1 in 1980; the same year he became the first Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championships. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 ...

, Ami Ghia, Sanat Mishra and Suresh Goel. D'sa was coaching the

Pullela Gopichand Pullela Gopichand (born 16 November 1973) is a former Indian badminton player. Currently, he is the Chief National Coach for the India national badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second In ...

when he won the 2001 All England title. He played at the state level until his late 50s and has shaped next generation of Indian doubles which includes players like

Jwala Gutta Jwala Gutta; family names traditionally precede personal names in Telugu naming customs (born 7 September 1983) is an Indian badminton player. Beginning in the late 1990s, she represented India at international events in both mixed and women' ...

, V. Diju,

Sanave Thomas Sanave Thomas Arattukulam (born 21 May 1980) is an Indian badminton player. He won bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in mixed team event. He was the gold medalists at the 2006 and 2010 S ...

and many others. Currently he is training new crop of players in Hindu Gymkhana in Mumbai.

Achievements

Asian Games

''Men's doubles'' ''Mixed doubles''

IBF International

''Men's doubles''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Sa, Leroy 1953 births Living people Indian male badminton players Indian national badminton champions Racket sportspeople from Mumbai Asian Games medalists in badminton Badminton players at the 1978 Asian Games Badminton players at the 1982 Asian Games Badminton players at the 1986 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for India Medalists at the 1982 Asian Games Medalists at the 1986 Asian Games Commonwealth Games competitors for India Badminton players at the 1982 Commonwealth Games