New Delhi: It has been a positive start to the season for Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, especially after a below par 2024 where the shuttler from Chennai languished in qualifying rounds of most tournaments.
The 21-year-old made the headlines in 2022 when he became the junior world No.1 following which he made the men’s singles final of the BWF World Junior Championships. After graduating to the senior level in 2023, Sankar rose through the ranks to reach a couple of finals — winning Luxembourg Open — before stagnating in 2024.
But the southpaw has had a fresh start this year, reaching the quarter-finals of the Thailand Masters and Swiss Open, beating higher-ranked opponents. In Basel, he also achieved a significant high when he beat world No.2 and three-time World Championships medallist Anders Antonsen in the pre-quarterfinals of the Swiss Open, hammering the Dane 21-5 in the final game.
“Overall, 2025 has been going well for me. Starting from Thailand Masters, I’ve played a series of good matches. My work (in training) has been paying off. In January, we trained for a good three weeks, the effects of which have lasted 2-3 months,” Sankar said from Jakarta where he is attending a month-long camp.
“My game has been a bit sharper than 2024 in terms of strokes. I have been sharper in my offence too with more precision in my strokes which has really helped me.”
The results are showing for Sankar who on Tuesday achieved his career-best ranking of 56. But the youngster — the son of a retired Chennai Port Trust official and a housewife — is not satisfied, knowing that to make it big he needs to get into the top 32 in the world which will automatically help him qualify for the big tournaments and not struggle through the pain of qualifying matches.
“I have to break into the top 32 as soon as possible. Only then I’ll be able to play all tournaments, including Super 1000. That’s what I am focusing on. This is the goal as of now,” said Sankar, who is coached by Aravind Samiappan at the Fireball Badminton Academy in Mogappair, Chennai.
Essentially a defensive player, Sankar has a calm style of play, full of subtleties which makes shot-making look easy. But the 21-year-old knows that to reach the top echelons, he needs to up his attacking game which has landed him up in Indonesia.
“Basically, I am a defensive player. I like retrieving shuttles. But the last few months my attacking shots have been a bit more precise and sharper. I am attacking more compared to what I used to earlier. I need to get better at it to keep the opponent under pressure,” said Sankar.
After landing in Jakarta on April 1, Sankar has been training with Indonesian youngsters under former Indonesia national men’s singles coach Harry Hartono, who has coached the likes of former Asian and All England champion Jonatan Christie, in a private camp.
Sankar decided to train under Hartono after the two met at the Indonesia Masters last August when Hartono had invited him to join the camp. The two got in touch again in February where the Indonesian told him about the April camp. Noticing the gap in the calendar, Sankar decided to take the opportunity.
It is not the first time he has decided to take the foreign route. Two years back, he took part in a two-week camp with the French team under their men’s singles coach Kestutis Navickas, sparring with world No.10 Alex Lanier.
Before that he had also spent sessions with Fernando Rivas, coach of three-time world champion Carolina Marin, and in Netherlands with Aram Mahmoud.
“I wanted to try different types of training, approaches and coaches, wanted to know how they work, train and things like that,” said Sankar, who will next play at the Taipei Open, Thailand Open and Malaysia Masters in May.
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