Anup Sridhar Profile

Anup Sridhar is an Indian Badminton Player, and is considered to be one of the finest Badminton Players India has seen in recent times. Anup is also well known as the Captain of the Indian Badminton team for the Thomas Cup tournament.

Early Life & Introduction to Badminton
He was born on the 11th of April 1983 at Bangalore, Karnataka. Anup received his basic education at the St. Joseph�s Boys High School. Further, he earned a degree in B.Com. from Sai Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. He started playing the game of Badminton at an early age, and the first tournament that he won was the Canara Bank tournament held at Indiranagar, Bangalore.

Advanced Training
To hone his skills in the game, Anup received advanced training in Badminton at the TATA Padukone Badminton Academy, Bangalore, where he learnt the master skills of the game under the able guidance of Prakash Padukone, Vimal Kumar and Tom John.

National Badminton
Anup hadn�t been able to win any Junior National title in Badminton, hence he was committed to win the Senior National title, and he successfully realized his dream in the year 2004 by emerging winner at the National Badminton Championship. He also grabbed the Championship in the year 2005 and 2006, winning the title three times in a row. Apart from the National Badminton Championship, Anup won a number of domestic tournaments in Badminton. He has been famous for being a giant killer and a powerful smasher.

International Badminton
He made his foray into the International Badminton in the year 2002 when he entered the India Asia Satellite tournament as a qualifier. Further, he played at various tournaments such as Luster International Malaysia Satellite tournament 2002, Proton Eon Malaysia Open tournament 2003, Norwegian International tournament 2003 and Canterbury International tournament 2004. His first substantial success arrived in the year 2004 when he managed to enter the Pre-Quarterfinal of Western Australian International tournament and Cheers Asian Satellite tournament held at Singapore. Further, he reached the Semi-Final round of Scottish International tournament 2004, and participated in bigger tournaments such as German Open and All England Open tournament in the year 2005.

The First Big Success
Anup Sridhar managed to enjoy his first big success in the arena of International Badminton when he emerged victorious at the 30th Hungarian International Badminton tournament in the year 2005. He was a member of the Indian Badminton team that was able to win the Bronze Medal at Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006. After this, he also reached the Semi-Final round of the Yonex German Open tournament 2007, and the Yonex Sunris Asian Continental Championship 2007. He represented the nation at the Beijing Olympic Games 2008, where he reached the 2nd round of the Men�s Singles contest. The highest ranking that Anup managed to clinch in International Badminton was 24, that he attained on the 20th of March 2008.

Beating the Champs
Throughout his Badminton career, Anup has managed to beat some of the top Badminton players in the world. The most famous of them is Taufik Hidayat from Indonesia, the former World No. 1 Badminton player who was the Gold Medal winner at the Athens Olympic Games 2004, and had won the World Badminton Championship in the year 2005. Apart from Taufik, Anup has also beaten Sung Hwan Park from Korea, the No. 1 Korean player and Shoji Sato from Japan, the No. 1 Japanese player at different occasions.

The Hardest Smasher
Anup Sridhar is also famous for hitting the Hardest Recorded Smash in the game of Badminton. He hit the smash at the World Badminton Championship 2007 held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Awards & Honors
To commemorate his excellence in the sport of Badminton and his consistent achievements in the game, Government of India honored Anup Sridhar with the prestigious Arjuna Award in the year 2007. Apart from it, he was also awarded with the Eklavya Award in the year 2004 and the Rotary-Brigade �Special Prize� Young Achievers Award in the year 2008.