From being just another promising young women shuttler to breaking into the world's top 10, the year gone by has seen the metamorphosis of Saina Nehwal into a sensation, whose exploits saw India rising up the world badminton chart.
Riding on her success story, Indian badminton enjoyed a
steep-rising curve over the past few seasons to leave its mark
on the sporting canvass, which saw some of the greatest battle
of grit, patience and ability en route to some spectular titles wins which made the world to stand up and take notice.
Keeping pace with her dreams, Saina had made her intent
clear at the start of the year when she became the first Indian girl to enter a Super Series semi-final in Singapore Open before losing to Mi Zhou of Hong Kong. She also made it to the last eight of the Thailand open.
With a new found optimism, the 18-year-old then sizzled at the Beijing Games, stunning world number five and fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller to become the first Indian woman to reach the quarter finals of the Olympics.
The little Hyderabadi teen soon attained the tag of a 'giant killer' as she galloped her way to an impressive win in the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open, beating Li Ya Lydia Cheah of Malaysia 21-8 21-19 in September.
The National champion also clinched the Youth Commonwealth Games and World Junior Championship titles and was adjudged the most promising player of the year by the Badminton World Federation soon after she broke into the elite bracket of top 10 players.
With the year nearing end, another opportunity came her way when she qualified for the prestigious World Super Series Masters final in Malaysia after two of the Chinese pulled out at the last moment.
However, her fate took a threatening turn when her viza got entangled in a bureaucratic quagmire. But a timely intervention of the Ministry of External Affairs saw her get the Viza on time as Saina emerged as the only Indian to reach the semifinal of the prestigious event, defeating two top level player on a single day.
The Hyderabadi teen defeated World number seven Hongyan Pi of France and world number 11 Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia in the round-robin league before going down to world number six chen Wang in the final four.
Among the men, this year saw the resurgence of Chetan Anand into the forefront once again. The 28-old-year shuttler rose like a phoenix, first winning the national champion for the third time on the trot and then romping home with the Kenya International open, Spanish Open in Madrid and Nepal Open in June.
He then reached the peak of his form, claiming the Bitburger and Czech International titles as his ranking shoot to World number 15. The Arjuna awardee also made it to the finals of Indian Open, Belgium Open and Dubai Open.
While Chetan weaved a web across his opponents in the singles, his wife and national champion Jwala Gutta kept the flag fluttering in the doubles events.
Combining with Shruti Kurian, the Hyderabadi less romped home with two titles, Nepal International Series and KLRC Bulgaria Open Grand Prix, while reaching the semi-finals of the Yonex Dutch Open Grand Prix in October.
It was a year of resurgence for the seven-time national doubles champion, who had to go through a bureaucratic hegemony last year along with her husband Chetan as critics started writing their obituary. However, a gritty Jwala shrugged off all criticism and galloped her way to three more titles with partner D Viju in the mixed doubles category.
The world number 38 duo won the Nepal International Series, Bitburger Open Grand Prix and KLRC Bulgaria Open Grand Prix to complete a hattrict of titles.
While, the whole of country was celebrating the winning feats of these shuttlers, one man who sat all alone disappointed was ace shuttler Anup Sridhar.
Riding on his last year's performance, the 25-year-old Bangaorean got a ticket to the Beijing Oympics and soon became the best Indian male shuttler ranking world number 14 but an injury in the first quarter of the year dented his hopes as it kept him out of the court for most of the tournaments.
Sridhar started the year winning the All-India ranking tournament in New Delhi and reached the pre-quarterfinals of the Proton Malaysia Super Series where he lost to Hyun Il Lee, the eventual runner-up.
But after his inury he had to sit out of many tournaments including the Tata Open and the Indian Open. Even in the tournaments he played -- Indonesian Open, Singapore Open and Thailand Open -- he made an early exit.
However, a gutsy Sridhar didn't want to let go the opportunity of playing in the Beijing Games and taking a cortisone shot he took to the court, defeating Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal in the first round before going down to Shoji Sato of Japan in straight-games.
Though Sridhar attained his dream of representing India in the Olympics, the cortisone shots further prolonged his injury lay-off and he couldn't feature in any tournament after the quadrennial extravaganza.
In fine, this year has gone India's way and filled the Indians with a new aura of self-belief which is here to stay. As former All England Champion Pullela Gopichand would put it,"Indian badminton has come at the World stage."
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