Unsung Heroes Edition III

3^rd Edition of Unsung Heroes of India Salutes certain people who have excelled in their fields and are still performing at the top level.

Leander Paes

Leander Adrian Paes (born 17 June 1973) is an professional tennis player who currently features in the doubles events in the ATP tour and the Davis Cup tournament. Having won 6 Doubles and 6 Mixed Doubles Tennis Grand Slam titles and finishing runners up in numerous other Grand Slam finals, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most respected contemporary doubles and mixed doubles players in the world. He is among the most successful professional Indian tennis players and is also the former captain of the Indian Davis Cup team. He is the recipient of India’s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1996–1997, the Arjuna Award in 1990, and the Padma Shri award in 2001 for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India.

Apart from his twelve Grand Slam victories at doubles and mixed doubles events, he is famous for his several memorable Davis Cup performances playing for India and also for winning a bronze medal for India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He also achieved the rare Men’s Doubles/Mixed Doubles double during the 1999 Wimbledon. His consecutive Olympic appearances from 1992 to 2008 make him the third Indian, after shooters Karni Singh and Randhir Singh, to compete at five Olympic Games. After winning the Mixed Doubles in Wimbledon 2010, Leander Paes became only the second man (after Rod Laver) to win Wimbledon titles in three different decades. In 2010 he joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation co-founded by Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone to support talented athletes from India in winning Olympic medals.

Singles titles

Men’s doubles titles (45)

Pankaj Advani

Pankaj Arjan Advani (born 24 July 1985 in Pune) is a World Champion in billiards and English billiards. Pankaj has been awarded by Padma Shri award in 2009, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2006, Arjuna Award in 2004 one of the renown civic and sports awards in India. This 25 years old has achieved more than anyone else in this age in his sport. He is the only Indian to have won both the billiards and snooker world titles.

He won his first world championship title in 2003 IBSF World Snooker Championship in China.

After winning the IBSF World Billiards Championship in 2005 at Qawra, Malta, when he defeated fellow countryman Devendra Joshi, he became only the second cueist after Malta’s Paul Mifsud to have won both the billiards and snooker world titles. He has been coached by Arvind Savur for almost a decade at Bangalore. Advani, who is the only player to have achieved a “grand double” of winning both the points and timed formats at the IBSF World Billiards Championships 2005, has repeated the same feat at the 2008 Championships held in Bangalore as well.

• 2010
  • Asian Games Gold Medallist – English Billiards SINGLES
  • Asian Billiards Championship
• 2009
  • World Professional Billiards Championship
  • Asian Billiards Championship
• 2008
  • IBSF World Billiards Championship (both formats – timed and points)
  • Asian Billiards Championship
• 2006
  • Asian Games Gold Medallist – English Billiards singles
• 2005
  • IBSF World Billiards Championship (both formats – timed and points)
  • Asian Billiards Championship
  • India Billiards Championship
  • India Junior Snooker Championship
  • India Junior Billiards Championship
  • WSA Challenge Tour
• 2004
  • WSA Challenge Tour
• 2003
  • IBSF World Snooker Championship
  • Indian Junior Billiards Championship
  • Indian Junior Snooker Championship
• 2001
  • Indian Junior Billiards Championship
• 2000
  • Indian Junior Billiards Championship
• 1999
  • Pot Shot All India Triangular Championship
  • Pot Shot non-medallist Championship
• 1998
  • Karnataka State Junior Snooker Championship
• 1997
  • 27th BS Sampath Memorial Handicap Snooker Championship
  • T.A. Selvaraj Memorial Billiards Championship
  • Karnataka Stage Junior Snooker Championship

Rajyavardhan Rathore

Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (born January 29, 1970 in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan) is an Indian Shooter who won the silver medal in Men’s Double Trap at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He is the first Indian to win an individual silver, after Norman Pritchard who won two silver medals at the1900 Paris Olympics.

In the 2004 Athens Olympics Rathore finished fifth in the qualification round with 135 points, behind eventual gold medal winner Ahmed Al Maktoum’s 144. Håkan Dahlby (138) and Wang Zheng (137) were placed second and third while Waldemar Schanz’s score of 135 was equal with Rathore. Rathore scored 46, 43 and 46 in each of rounds.

In the finals, Rathore scored 44, second best behind Almaktoum’s 45 giving him he had won 25 International Medals in highly competitive competitions in his sport of Doubletrap Shooting.

He is a now a Colonel in the Indian Army. An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla Pune (N.D.A)

Sania Nehwal

Saina Nehwal (born March 17, 1990) is an Khel Ratna winning badminton player currently ranked number 4 in the world by Badminton World Federation. Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina Nehwal made history on June 21, 2009, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Wang Lin in Jakarta. (The Super Series tournament is roughly equivalent to a Grand Slam in tennis).

Saina won her second career Super Series title by winning the Singapore Open title on June 20, 2010. She completed a hat-trick in the same year by winning the Indonesian Open on June 27, 2010. This win resulted in her rise to 3rd ranking and subsequently to No. 2. Later in the same year she also won Hong Kong Super Series on December 12, 2010.

Previously coached by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner, Saina is the reigning Indian national junior champion and is currently coached by Indonesian badminton legend Atik Jauhari since August 2008, with the former All England champion and national coach Pullela Gopichand being her mentor.

Saina was the under-19 national champion. Saina created history by the winning the prestigious Asian Satellite Badminton tournament (India Chapter) twice, becoming the first player to do so.

In 2006, Saina appeared on the global scene when she became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open. Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, Saina went on to stun several top seeded players including number seed Xu Huaiwen before defeating Julia Wong Pei Xian of Malaysia for the title. The same year also saw Saina as runner up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships, where she lost a hard fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan. She did one better in the 2008 by becoming the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships by defeating ninth seeded Japanese Sayaka Sato 21-9, 21-18.

Saina has been named The Most Promising Player in 2008. She reached the world super series semifinals in the month of December 2008.

On 21 June 2009, she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series title, the most prominent badminton series of the world by winning the Indonesia Open. She beat Chinese Wang Lin in the final 12-21, 21-18, 21-9. Saina on winning the tournament said “I had been longing to win a super series tournament since my quarter final appearance at the Olympics”. Saina is on the par with the likes of Prakash Padukone and her mentor Pullela Gopichand who both won the all England championships which are of similar status to the super series. In August 2009 she reached the quarterfinals of world championship losing to the second seed Lin Wang. Saina Nehwal was rewarded with Arjuna award in August, 2009.

Saina has been signed up by Olympic Gold Quest to support her in fulfilling her dream of winning the Olympic gold medal. Saina has been awarded with Padma Shri award in January 2010. Saina is brand ambassador of Deccan Chargers, an Indian Premier League team owned by Deccan chronicle. She has also became one of the 8 brand ambassadors of 2010 Commonwealth Games held on New Delhi India

On October 14, 2010 won gold medal against Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia 19-21, 23-21, 21-13 in CWG Delhi and made an unforgettable moment in India’s badminton history.

On December 12, 2010 she won Hong Kong super series defeating Wang Shixian of China 15-21, 21-16, 21-17.

She was recently voted as the third best Badminton Player of the Year 2010 by readers of an international badminton magazine, Badzine. Lin Dan expectedly won the top spot with 30% votes followed by Lee Chong Wei with 26%, Saina winning 9% in the third place.

This list will go on. India has always produced winners in each and every field. And this legacy is going to continue with the coming time. Saluting each and every one who has made India proud.

Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/