PBL 2017: 5 lesser known players you should know about

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (R) winning a doubles competition with Chirag Shetty

#2 Rituparna Das (Awadhe Warriors)

Das has trained at the Gopichand Badminton Academy (Image Courtesy: Sportseed)

The spotlight will be firmly on the shuttle queen Saina Nehwal when the Awadhe Warriors play their matches. But the second women’s singles player in that team too is a highly-talented emerging player.

Rituparna Das, who has just turned 20, hails from Haldia in West Bengal. She has been training at the famed Gopichand Badminton Academy for the past eight years and her determination is bearing fruit this year.

She won the Polish International and rode on the good form to reach the semi-finals of the Prague Open where she upset the second seed Martina Repiska in straight games. The steadily-rising Rituparna also triumphed at the India International Series towards the end of the season where she beat the top seed and Russian Open champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde in the final.

Her recent run has pushed her to a career-best ranking of 64 which also makes her the current India No. 5 women’s singles player.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Staff Editor