THE BEST OF ASIA'S JR: VARUN KAPUR (INDIA)
Varun Kapur is an Indian player currently ranked #2 in BWF’s junior ranking for men’s singles. At 18 years old, he has 73 wins in the men’s singles category and has won many junior international titles, making him one of Asia’s best junior players!
Kapur started playing badminton at a really young age. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, he said: “I started playing badminton back in Kolkata when I was six, but that was only for fun. Even my coaches said that I was playing well, but there was no infrastructure there (Kolkata) to grow so I decided to move to Pune. I had been here before for summer camps and that made up my mind to move here”.
It was not an easy challenge for him as his life drastically changed. However, from then on, Kapur worked really hard to get to where he is currently at. 2017 was a year where he started to really compete in a lot of international junior tournaments, from the YONEX ITALIAN JUNIOR 2017 to the PEMBANGUNAN JAYA RAYA INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR GRAND PRIX 2017 (U19).
However it was the following year in 2018 where he quickly shined and started to make a name for himself. In the CYPRUS JUNIOR 2018, he reached the quarter-finals and was a silver medalist at the MONGOLIA JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL SERIES 2018 as he was defeated by Korean player Han Kyeol Lee in the finals. But he finally stood on top of the podium at the DUBAI JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL SERIES 2018 when he defeated Swedish player Tom Söderström 21-7, 21-19 in just over 20 minutes. He found success again in the SLOVAK JUNIOR 2018 and won gold against Luka Ban.
But the success of last year was just the start for him. In 2019, Kapur won 3 silver medals in Russia, Portugal, and Dubai. He then went on to win gold 3 times at the VALAMAR JUNIOR OPEN 2019 (defeating Spanish player Tomas Toledano), the LI-NING CYPRUS JUNIOR 2019 (defeating Danish player Mads Juel Møller), and the RSL LITHUANIAN JUNIOR 2019 (defeating Slovakian player Andrej Antoska). An amazing achievement for the young player.
In 2020 he continued on by winning silver at the 10TH MULTI ALARM HUNGARIAN INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2020 and competed as well at the Portuguese International Junior 2020 and the UGANDA INTERNATIONAL 2021. We’re so excited to see him continue to rise in the world of badminton!
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