India’s Anup Sridhar joins Singapore Badminton Association as singles coach

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SINGAPORE – The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) has beefed up its coaching stable with the appointment of former top India men’s singles player Anup Sridhar, subject to the successful application of his employment pass.

However, SBA vice-president (business development and communications) David Tan clarified on Jan 20 that Sridhar will be hired as a singles coach under South Korean Kim Ji-hyun’s guidance, instead of the men’s singles head coach as reported by Indian media.

Previous media reports had erroneously stated that the 41-year-old would be “taking over from famous coach Mulyo Handoyo”, and that he has been appointed the “men’s singles head coach of the Singapore badminton team”.

Tan told The Straits Times: “Our national team is made up of players at different development stages and world-ranking levels, and therefore have different coaching, training and competition needs.

“We are looking to address this by bringing in more coaches with different abilities. With this in mind, SBA had advertised for the position of an additional singles coach whose credentials include a minimum of five years’ experience within a national badminton team structure with a primary focus on singles.”

Sridhar, who won a bronze medal at the 2007 Asian Championships, captained India’s Thomas Cup team in 2006 and 2008, and played at the 2008 Olympics. He fits the bill as he has worked with top-level players like Commonwealth Games champions Lakshya Sen and P.V. Sindhu – who won the world title in 2019 – after retiring from competitive badminton in 2015.

Having learnt from former world No. 1 and All England champion Prakash Padukone in their home city of Bangalore, he was also a coach at the Karnataka Badminton Association. Sridhar was at the Jan 14-19 India Open to watch Singapore’s top singles players Yeo Jia Min, Loh Kean Yew and Jason Teh in action.

Sridhar’s appointment comes amid a slew of changes in the SBA’s coaching and management teams. In October 2024, ST revealed that SBA would be moving national singles head coach Kelvin Ho to the national training squad to develop the next generation of players. The national sports association was also looking to appoint separate men’s and women’s singles head coaches to take them to the next level.

But ST understands that the search for a suitable men’s singles head coach has hit a snag, after the SBA was turned down by two reputable Indon...

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