Anup Sridhar appointed Singapore men’s singles head coach

The development took place in December when the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) approached 41-year-old to coach their men’s singles shuttlers, comprising former world champion Loh Kean Yew, in the new Olympic cycle.

Though Anup refused to comment on the matter, a person close to the former shuttler confirmed the news. “Yes, he is going. The visa formalities aren’t complete yet which is why Anup cannot talk on the matter, but the news will be made official in about 2-3 weeks,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

Anup will be taking over from famous coach Mulyo Handoyo, who stepped down from the position in the middle of last year. Handoyo was the coach of legendary Indonesian player Taufik Hidayat, guiding him to the 2004 Athens Olympics gold and th 2005 World Championships crown.

Since then, the Singapore men’s singles shuttlers have been without a head coach with their women’s coach Kim Ji Hyun, who guided Sindhu to the World Championship gold in 2019, taking over the duties while on tour. Even on Wednesday, Kim was sitting courtside to Loh during the first-round match at the $950,000 India Open here.

Though Indians have travelled abroad for coaching – Shlok Ramachandran, B Sai Praneeth and Mohammed Siyaduttullah all coach in the United States of America now – this is the first time an Indian will be the head coach of a significant badminton nation with a former world champion in its ranks.