Parupalli Kashyap is an Indian Badminton Player hailing from South India. He was born on 8 September 1986 to Uday Shankar and Subhadra Shankar.
Parupalli Kashyap trains at Gopichand Badminton Academy and is supported by Olympic Gold Quest, a not-for-profit foundation supporting Indian athletes. He was awarded the Arjuna Award by Government of India in 2012.
Parupalli Kashyap created history by reaching the Quarter-Finals of men`s singles at 2012 London Olympics. He is the only male player from India to do so. In the year 2014 Glasgow, Parupalli Kashyap won the gold medal in men`s singles. Parupalli Kashyap was the icon player for the Indian Badminton League team, Banga Beats in 2013 Indian Badminton League team.
Early life of Parupalli Kashyap
Parupalli Kashyap was born to Uday Shankar and Subhadra Shankar. Being an 11 year old badminton player, he first enrolled with a training camp conducted by S. M. Arif in Hyderabad, (Capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). Because his father had a transferable job, their family kept moving frequently. While in Bengaluru, he joined the Padukone Academy. In 2004, they moved back to Hyderabad. Soon after, Parupalli Kashyap was diagnosed with asthma after a few medical tests. Kashyap felt that his stay in Bangalore during 2000-03 might have aggravated the condition. After overcoming from asthma, he continued his training at the Gopichand Academy under Pullela Gopichand.
In the year 2005 Parupalli Kashyap represented Telangana and won the 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 Przemyslaw Wacha in the pre-quarterfinals; he lost the next round though. A few months later, Parupalli Kashyap defeated Wacha again at the Bitburger Open to reach the semi-finals. In the year 2006, his world ranking improved from outside the 100 to 64. In the same year, Parupalli Kashyap was chosen to represent India at the 2006 Asian Games. At the 33rd National Games, Parupalli Kashyap defeated the then National champion Chetan Anand to win a gold medal for Telangana. Between 2006–2007 Parupalli Kashyap won a few national tournaments as well.
In the year 2009, Parupalli Kashyap was a semi-finalist at the Dutch Open and the 2009 Senior National Badminton Championships. In the same year, Parupalli Kashyap was the runners-up at the Thailand International, Spanish Open and Toulouse Open. At the 2009 Singapore Super Series, Parupalli Kashyap was the semi-finalist.
In the year 2010 Commonwealth Games, Parupalli Kashyap reached the semi-finals stage but lost to Rajiv Jouseph of England. He won the bronze medal against Chetan Anand.
Parupalli Kashyap reached the semi-final stage of 2012 Djaram Indonesia Open in the men`s singles competition, where he eventually lost. In the year 2012 of Summer Olympics, Parupalli Kashyap won all his matches at group stage. In Pre-quarters, he defeated Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka by 21-16, 15-21, 21-14. In the quarter-finals, he lost to top seed Lee Chong Wei in straight sets.
At 2012 Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold 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. Parupalli Kashyap 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 Taufiq Hidayat of Indonesia.
Parupalli Kashyap was second seed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He won the semi-final match against Rajiv Ouseph of England. In the finals, in intense three games he defeated Derek Wong of Singapore 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 and thus won Gold medal for India. The gold medal in men`s singles for India came after a gap of 32 years, as previous winner was Prakash Padukone in 1978, followed by Syed Modi in 1982. He was awarded Arjuna Award in the year 2012 by the Government of India.