#2 Rituparna Das (Awadhe Warriors)
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.
