For a sport which has a great tradition and following since it first started in the then Madras, neither Chennai city, (this sport’s headquarters) nor the rest of the state, for that matter, have exactly been on the national map. It’s immediate neighbour Kerala produced at least one national (singles) champion in Vimal Kumar – now a national level coach. Another neighbour, Karnataka produced the yesteryear international talent Prakash Padukone – a former All England champion, who since his retirement embarked on the task of producing new talents in the sport at his Academy, until he outsourced it recently. And, from another neighbouring state, united Andhra Pradesh, there emerged another All England champion Gopi Chand, now a major coach and talent spotter for India, and his daughter a Doubles champion at the international level. Somehow, Tamil Nadu, arguably, failed to produce at least one star at the national level.
Since badminton made its entry into the city via the Madras Club in 1876, after the British introduced it in India in the 1860s, and then the Madras Cricket Club (MCC) introduced it in 1906, there emerged a few talented shuttlers in Edwin Srinivasan, Sheopuri, Barsi, K K Nair, Usha Balan and Asha Rao in singles. Sugunraj and V S Selvaraj made a mark in Doubles. But, perhaps going by the circumstances in the development of the sport here, they could not raise themselves to the next level.
However, the very first week of 2026 January saw the emergence, for the very first time, of Tamil Nadu’s national champion in a Chennai lad – Rithwick Sanjeevi.
This promising new talent, in the Indian badminton firmament spoke to Madras Musings on the occasion:
“My family background is very normal, but I have very supportive (Tamil) parents who always decide what’s best for me”, he says.
Talking about his beginnings in badminton he says, “I started playing badminton at the age of seven, and I started training professionally in the sport at the age of 10 or 11”.
Although a Chennaiite, Rithwick trains at Hatsun badminton centre which is located in Sivakasi. “My coaches at Hatsun always planned an individual training programme for me so that I could focus more on developing my skills.” The chairman of HATSUN has been sponsoring Rithwick for all the tournaments in which he competes.
About how he happened to take to sports at all before settling down to badminton, he says, “My father used to do some athletics back in his school days and my great grandfather was a professional football player. My elder sister was the first person to take to badminton in the family”.
“Badminton was the first sport that I ever tried. I loved it so much that I decided to take it up as my passion,” he points out.
Rithwick is confident about his future journey in the sport: “I can see that I have a lot of potential in me, and I can achieve more. I just have to keep working harder,” he avers.
Asked about sharpening his own skills to rise higher in the sport in the wake of his current achievement, Rithwick says, “I will be focusing on playing longer rallies without making any errors”.
Rithwick has not put a stop to his focus on academics following his success in Badminton. He is currently pursuing a Masters Degree at SRM University in Chennai.