Badminton Year-Ender: Top 5 shuttlers of the 2018 season

#5 Carolina Marin

She may not be on a title-winning spree, she may look less than her 100% fitness. But never ever count out Carolina Marin for one thing she never lacks in -- hunger.

The 25-year-old has bagged every elite title possible in the world of badminton -- an Olympic gold, the world championships and even the European Championships. Yet that has not diminished her motivation to keep scaling the heights one bit.

Since her Rio Olympic gold medal in 2016, the Spaniard hadn’t been at her imperious best and slumped to unexpected early losses. Injuries played a big role in not letting her have the kind of performances she would have liked.

But in the second half of 2018, Marin showed that she was nowhere gone. By beating quality opponents like Saina, Sindhu and Bingjiao, the former World No. 1 asserted her supremacy once again en route to becoming the only women’s singles shuttler to win the World Championships title thrice.

And she didn’t stop there. She carried on that immaculate form to the Japan Open and the China Open to have a pristine Asian swing, winning 15 matches in a row.

Along with the European Championships, Marin won four titles in 2018 and has begun to look dangerous as ever.

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 Sripad