Parupalli Kashyap (born 8 September 1986) 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 per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player. A former World No.6, he trains at Gopichand Badminton Academy. He was awarded the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

by the Government of India in 2012. He created history by reaching the quarter-finals of men's singles at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, being the first male player from India to do so. At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in men's singles. Kashyap was the Icon Player for the

Indian Badminton League Premier Badminton League (PBL) is a team badminton league operating in India. Sportz & Live Private Limited (Sportzlive) has the rights to operate and execute the Premier Badminton League. The inaugural season of PBL was held from 2 to 17 Janu ...

team, Banga Beats in the 2013 edition. He married fellow badminton player,

Saina Nehwal Saina Nehwal (; born 17 March 1990) is an Indian professional badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 ...

in a private ceremony on 14 December 2018.

Early life (1997–2004)

Born to Uday Shankar and Subhadra of

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. ...

, as an 11-year-old, Kashyap Parupalli first enrolled with a training camp conducted by S. M. Arif in

Hyderabad, India 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 Ind ...

. Because his father had a transferable job, their family kept moving frequently. While in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, he joined the Padukone Academy. In 2004, they moved back to Hyderabad. Soon after, Kashyap was diagnosed with

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...

after a few medical tests. Kashyap felt that his stay in Bangalore during 2000–03 might have aggravated the condition. Though the diagnosis came as a shock to him and he thought that his playing career was finished, he put in a lot of effort with determination to overcome the problem. Using appropriate medication, his condition began to improve dramatically. He continued his training at the Gopichand Academy under

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 ...

, a former

All England Open The All England Open Badminton Championships is the world's oldest badminton tournament, held annually in England. With the introduction of the BWF's latest grading system, it was given Super Series status in 2007, upgraded to Super Series Premi ...

champion.

Professional career

2005–2009

In 2005, Kashyap represented

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and won the a boys' singles title at the National Junior Open Badminton Championships. From 2006 onwards, he started to appear at international tournaments. In that year's Hong Kong Open, he caused an upset by defeating the then world number 19 Przemysław Wacha in the pre-quarterfinals; he lost the next round though. A few months later, he defeated Wacha again at the

Bitburger Open The Hylo Open, formerly known as the BMW Badminton Cup, BMW Open, Bitburger Masters, Bitburger Open and SaarLorLux Open, is an international badminton tournament held at the Saarlandhalle in Saarbrücken, Germany, since 1988. It was sponsored by t ...

to reach the semifinals. In 2006, his world ranking improved from outside the 100 to 64. Coach Gopichand was happy at the win and felt that it was a good sign that Kashyap was winning his important matches against higher-ranked players. In the same year, Kashyap was chosen to represent India at the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. At the 33rd National Games, Kashyap defeated the then National champion Chetan Anand to win a gold medal for Andhra Pradesh. Between 2006–07, Kashyap won a few national tournaments as well. In 2009, Kashyap was a semifinalist at the

Dutch Open Dutch Open may refer to: * Dutch Open (tennis), an ATP tennis tournament from 1957 to 2008 * Dutch Open (golf), an annual golf tournament on the European Tour * Dutch Open (badminton) * Dutch Open (darts) {{disambig ...

and the 2009 Senior National Badminton Championships. In the same year, he was the runners-up at the Thailand International, Spanish Open and Toulouse Open. At the 2009 Singapore Super Series, Kashyap was the semifinalist.

2010 Commonwealth Games

At the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

, he reached the semifinals stage but lost to

Rajiv Ouseph Theratil Rajiv Ouseph (born 30 August 1986) is a former badminton player from England who represented both England and Great Britain in the international tournaments. Ouseph was the European Champion, winning in 2017. Ouseph was born and broug ...

of England. He won the bronze medal against chetan Anand. He also played a crucial role in India winning a silver medal in the Team Event of 2010 Commonwealth Games He also reached the semi-finals at the 2010 Indian Open Grand Prix Gold where he lost out to compatriot Gurusai Datt. He lost out to Arvind Bhat in the finals of the 75th Senior National Badminton Championship held at Rohtak in 2011. Kashyap reached the semifinal stage of 2012 Djaram Indonesia Open in the men's singles competition, where he eventually lost. En route to the semifinals, he upset world number 3

Chen Long Chen Long (; ; born 18 January 1989), is a Chinese former professional badminton player. He is the 2016 Olympic champion, two-time World champion, and an Asian champion. Chen was a former World number 1, occupying the top men's singles ranki ...

and world number 16

Hans-Kristian Vittinghus Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus (born 16 January 1986) is a Danish badminton player. He was a member of the winning Denmark team at the 2016 Thomas Cup in Kunshan, China. Career Junior He won 4 junior national titles, 2 in singles in 2003 ...

2012 Summer Olympics

At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

, Kashyap surprised one and all by winning all his matches at the group stage, which involved the shocking defeat of

Nguyễn Tiến Minh Nguyễn Tiến Minh (born February 12, 1983) is a Vietnamese badminton player. His best achievement to date was the bronze medal at the World Championship in 2013. Career Introduced to badminton by his father at the early age of 10, Nguy ...

. In the Pre-quarters he defeated

Niluka Karunaratne Niluka Karunaratne ( Sinhala: නිලූක කරුණාරත්න; Tamil: நிலுக கருணாரத்ன) (born 13 February 1985) is a Sri Lankan badminton player who has competed at the Olympics in 2012, 2016 and 2020. His ...

of Sri Lanka by 21–16, 15–21, 21–14. In the Quarterfinals, it was disappointment as a dejected looking Kashyap was escorted out of the court after his loss to top seed

Lee Chong Wei Datuk Lee Chong Wei (; born 21 October 1982) is a Malaysian former badminton player. As a singles player, Lee was ranked first worldwide for 349 weeks, including a 199-week streak from 21 August 2008 to 14 June 2012. He is the fifth Mala ...

in straight sets. In the process, he created history by becoming the only Indian to reach the Quarterfinal stages in the Olympics in Men's Singles. This achievement led him to 19th rank. Later his victory in the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold 2012 led him to a career best ranking of 14. His success in Korea in 2013 led his rank up to 10.On 31 January 2013 he achieved a ranking of 9. He reached the quarterfinals in the Swiss open which led him to a ranking of 7 as per the rankings provided by BWF on 14 March. He moved up to a career best ranking of 6 after his first round match against

Taufik Hidayat Taufik Hidayat (born 10 August 1981) is an Indonesian retired badminton player. He is a former World, Olympic, Asian Games, and Asian champion, and the youngest world number one in the men's singles. Hidayat has won the Indonesia Open six tim ...

of Indonesia.

2014

Recovering from a couple of "freak injuries", Kashyap started the year winning the first round match against Germany's

Marc Zwiebler Marc Zwiebler () (born 13 March 1984) is a badminton player from Germany. His highest ranking is 10 in the world. He is a seven-time German National Badminton Championships, German national champion in men's singles. He won gold at the 2012 Euro ...

in Malaysia Open but he lost in the very next round to the number 3 seed

Jan O Jorgensen Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

. In the Indian Open Grand Prix gold Tournament also his performance was not very satisfactory as the defending champion lost in the quarterfinals to Zulfadli Zulkiffli. Kashyap's ranking was declining steadily until he reached the Semifinal stages of the 2014 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold. One of the biggest victories for Kashyap came in the 2014 India Super Series when he beat the Chinese world number 6

Wang Zhengming Wang Zhengming (born 16 February 1990) is a Chinese badminton player from Guangzhou, Guangdong. He was the boys' singles gold medalists at the 2008 Asian and World Junior Championships. Career 2010 A World and Asian Junior Champion two ...

, 12–21 21–17 12–21. He extended Indian hopes till the Quarterfinals where he lost out to top seed

. The

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

was a halt to a steady decline in form for Kashyap as he lost almost all the subsequent matches after his home tournament. But there was more disappointment waiting for Kashyap as he lost in the very first round of

2014 BWF World Championships The 2014 BWF World Championships was a badminton tournament which was held from 25 to 31 August 2014 at the Ballerup Super Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. Host city selection Copenhagen and Macau submitted bids for this of championships. Both citie ...

to Dieter Domke. Even in Asian Games 2014 he was a huge disappointment as he lost in the second round. He was widely criticized for not showing good fighting spirit in his second round match against top seed

which was quite uncharacteristic of Kashyap. Despite all these disappointing losses, Kashyap managed to return to form in the 2014 Denmark Super Series Premier where he reached the semifinal stages. En route to the Semifinals, he upset world number 3 Jan Ø. Jørgensen his second win against the Dane. In the very next tournament that he played, he beat world number 4,

Kenichi Tago is a former badminton player from Japan. He is the son of former badminton player Yoshiko Yonekura. In 2010, he reached the final of the All England Open Badminton Championships. En route to the final he beat three seeded players including Ngu ...

and world number 9, Tian Houwei in consecutive rounds thus reaching the quarterfinals of

2014 French Super Series The 2014 French Super Series will be the tenth super series tournament of the 2014 BWF Super Series. The tournament will be contested in Paris, France from October 21–26, 2014 and had a total purse of $275,000. A qualification will occur t ...

. He continued his great form in the 2014 China Open Super Series Premier where he reached the Quarterfinal stages. Back to back quarterfinal appearances in Superseries Events helped Kashyap to jump up in the Destination Dubai rankings, but unfortunately another first round loss in the 2014 Hong Kong Super Series saw Kashyap drop from 11 in the Destination Dubai ranking to 14.

2014 Commonwealth Games

Kashyap was seeded second at the

. As expected Kashyap crashed into the Men's Singles finals. His route to the final was not easy. In the Semifinal match against

of England, he played out of his skin to avenge his loss in the

semifinal and also in the mixed team event, where India eventually finished in the fourth position. In the finals, in intense three games he defeated Derek Wong of Singapore 21–14, 11–21, 21–19 and thus won a historic gold medal for India. The gold medal in men's singles came after a long wait of 32 years, allowing Kashyap to see his name written amongst two legends of Indian Badminton who were also former gold medalists in the same event,

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 ...

in 1978, followed by

Syed Modi Syed Modi (31 December 1962 – 28 July 1988), born as Syed Mehdi Hassan Zaidi, was an Indian badminton singles player. He was eight-time National Badminton champion (1980–1987). His most notable achievement at the international badminton ...

in 1982.

2015

Despite promising nothing lesser than a podium finish, Kashyap started the year on a disappointing note, losing out to Derek Wong in the pre-quarters of 2015 Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold. But it was a completely different story at the India Open Grand Prix Gold 2015 where Kashyap defeated compatriot

Srikanth Kidambi Srikanth Kidambi (born 7 February 1993) is an Indian badminton player. A former world no. 1, Kidambi was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, in 2018. and the Arjuna award in 2015. In 2021, he became the first Indian t ...

23–21, 23–21 in an intense final. However, the real challenge of the tournament was from

Viktor Axelsen Viktor Axelsen (born 4 January 1994) is a Danish badminton player. He is the 2017 and 2022 World champion and the 2020 Olympic champion. He won the 2010 World Junior Championships, beating South Korea's Kang Ji-wook in the final to become the ...

in the semi-finals, where Kashyap was made to sweat before Axelsen ran out of steam and surrendered the match 18–21, 22–20, 21–7 to Kashyap. Kashyap's woes continued in the Superseries events as he lost out in the first round of the

2015 All England Super Series Premier The 2015 All England Super Series Premier was the first super series tournament of the 2015 BWF Super Series. The tournament took place in Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West ...

. In his home Superseries event too Kashyap failed to reach the quarterfinals, bowing out to Xue Song of China in straight games in the pre-quarters.

2016

Kashyap failed to qualify for the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

in Rio.

2018

Kashyap failed to get a spot in the team for 2018 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

2020–Present

Kashyap failed to qualify for the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, thus missing out on qualifying for 2 consecutive Olympics. He was not selected in the team for the

2021 Sudirman Cup The 2021 Sudirman Cup (officially known as the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2021 for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th edition of the Sudirman Cup, the biennial international badminton championship contested by the mixed national teams ...

and the 2021 Thomas Cup. He retired 0-3 down to

Chou Tien-chen Chou Tien-chen (Chinese: 周天成; born 8 January 1990) is a Taiwanese badminton player. He became the first local shuttler in 17 years to win the men's singles title of the Chinese Taipei Open in 2016 since Indonesian-born Fung Permadi won ...

in the 1st round of the

2021 Denmark Open The 2021 Denmark Open (officially known as the Victor Denmark Open 2021 for sponsorship reasons) was a badminton tournament which took place at the Odense Sports Park in Odense, Denmark, from 19 to 24 October 2021 and had a total prize of US$850, ...

. His run of 1st round exits continued with 1st round exits in the 2021 French Open (badminton), the 2021 Indonesia Masters (losing to

10-21, 19-21) and the 2021 Indonesia Open (losing to Loh Kean Yew 11-21, 14-21).

Achievements

Commonwealth Games

''Men's singles''

BWF World Tour (1 runner-up)

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international governing body for the sport of badminton recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was founded in 1934 as the International Badminton Federation (IBF) with nine membe ...

(BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100. ''Men's singles''

BWF Grand Prix (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the

(BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017. ''Men's singles'' : BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament : BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (1 title, 3 runners-up)

''Men's singles'' :

BWF International Challenge The BWF International Challenge is a grade 3 and level 1 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Series (level 2) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament :

BWF International Series The BWF International Series is a grade 3 and level 2 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Challenge (level 1) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament

Performance in Super Series events

Awards, rewards and recognition

, 2012 ; For the gold medal at 2014 Commonwealth Games * cash award by

Badminton Association of India Badminton Association of India (BAI) is the governing body of badminton in India. BAI is an association registered under the societies act. It was formed in 1934, and has been holding national-level tournaments in India since 1936. BAI has 28 ...

. * cash award by Telangana government.

Record against selected opponents

Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi finalists, and Olympic quarter finalists. Accurate as of 29 November 2022.

References

External links

*
Parupalli Kashyap
at

Olympic Gold Quest Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) is a program of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, a Not for Profit (Section 25) Company, which is committed to bridging the gap between the best athletes in India and the best athletes in the world thus hel ...

Olympics London 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kashyap, Parupalli 1986 births Living people Racket sportspeople from Hyderabad, India Racket sportspeople from Guntur Telugu people Indian male badminton players Badminton players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players of India Badminton players at the 2006 Asian Games Badminton players at the 2010 Asian Games Badminton players at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for India Badminton players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India Commonwealth Games medallists in badminton Recipients of the Arjuna Award