Wishesh magazine january 2018 Wishesh magazine january 2018 | Page 38

COVER STORY
The 24 year old won the
French Open, the Denmark
Open, the Australian Open
and the Indonesia Cup.
Before Srikanth, only
badminton legend Lin Dan,
his Chinese compatriot Chen
Long and Malaysian star Lee
Chong Wei had won four
Super Series men’s singles
titles in a single season.
The world No 4 finished
runner-up at the Singapore
Open where he lost to
compatriot B Sai Praneeth.
2- PV Sindhu:
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After her silver in the 2016
Rio Olympics, the world No
3 continued her glorious run,
winning the India Open Super
Series, the Korea Open
Super Series and the Syed
Modi Grand Prix Gold.
She narrowly missed out at
three other events, ending up
second best in the Glasgow
World Championship, the
Dubai Super Series final and
the Hong Kong Open.
She produced a superlative
performance to defeat
reigning Olympic champion
Carolina Marin and win her
maiden India Open Super
Series title in April.
In August, her gallant effort
WWW.WISHESH.COM | JANUARY 2018
to become India’s first World
champion ended in a heart-
wrenching 19-21, 22-20, 20-
22 defeat to Nozomi Okuhara
after an epic final that lasted
109 minutes.
Kidambi Srikanth
Sindhu extracted revenge
soon after, beating Okuhara
in the summit clash at the
Korea Open Super Series in
September.
3- Pankaj Advani:
Pankaj enjoyed another
stellar year on the green
baize.
He won a couple of world
titles, taking his world title
count to a massive 18.
Pankaj also became the
only Indian cueist to win the
national billiards and snooker
titles.
In November, he won two
titles at the IBSF World
Billiards and Snooker
Championships in Doha.
He clinched his 17th World
title after thrashing arch-rival
Mike Russell in the IBSF
World Billiards final. In the
process, Pankaj defended the
150-up format title he won in
Bengaluru last year.
With only a day’s gap to
switch from billiards to
snooker, Pankaj outclassed
Amir Sarkhosh for yet
another world title.
Pankaj Advani
4- Virat Kohli:
India’s cricket captain scored
2,818 runs across all three
formats in international
cricket in 2017, the third
highest ever in a calendar
year, behind Kumar
Sangakkara (2,868 runs in
2014) and Ricky Ponting
(2,833 runs in 2005).