In 2015, Saina Nehwal and Sania Mirza scaled new heights in an already glittering career by rising to top of the summit in their respective sports. Women’s hockey team and Apurvi Chandela made it a superb year for ladies in Indian sport. PIONEER SPORT looks back at India’s shining moments this year
Saina flies Tricolour atop
Saina Nehwal’s incredible rise to become the World No.1 was one of the proudest moments for Indian sport in 2015.
Never mind topping the summit in the badminton world, but managing the feat in a country that has never done it before makes it sweeter. And the icing on the cake was achieving the milestone in front of home crowd.
The 2012 london Olympics bronze medalist did not disappoint the home crowd by reaching the Indian Open Super Series final, where she set up the final clash against Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon.
Coming into the match with a 5-3 overall advantage over her rival, Saina showed her dominant display from the start at the Siri For Sports Complex in the capital.
Taking advantage of Intanon’s unforced errors, Saina cruised to a 11-5 lead. Even though the third seed and former champion put up good fight to reduce the deficit, the Indian held on to claim the game 21-16.
The change of sides didn’t alter anything as Nehwal once again rushed to a 5-0 lead. The Thai shuttler gained a few points with her half smashes and deceptive strokes but the Indian still managed to garner a 11-6 lead. At 19-14, Intanon hit her shot wide to give Saina her first match point and then the Thai girl repeated the same as Saina threw her hands in the air to not only clinch her maiden India Open Super Series title, but also became the World No 1.
With that victory she became the first Indian shuttler to top the badminton summit and received massive praise from all corners of the country for her incredible achievement.
Beyond this title, the girl from Hyderabad had an incredible 2015. Earlier in the year, Saina won the India Open Grand Prix Gold by defeating current World No 1 Spain’s Carolina Marin in the final. Then she became the first Indian woman to reach the final of All England Open Badminton Championships.
But this time Carolina had her revenge by beating the Indian 21-16, 14-21, 7-21 in the final. Saina also came agonisingly close to winning the World Championships in Jakarta, when she yet again fell at the final hurdle.
The Hyderabadi shuttler was once again undone by Marin in the final after losing the match 16-21, 19-21. The Indian however had her revenge by finally getting the better of the Spaniard 19-21, 25-23, 21-16 in the final of the Syed Modi International tournament. She also made another final appearance by reaching the title clash of China Open but lost to former No 1 li Xuerui in the final. Saina’s run of not being able to overcome the Chinese player continued.
Even though Saina was unable to hold on to her World No 1 ranking, the 25-year-old gave lot of incredible memories for the nation to remember and managed to finish the year on a promising note with the World No 2 ranking. Before that, though, she needs to recover from her foot injury.
Sania jumps to top of the world
Sania Mirza made an entire nation proud when she became the first Indian woman tennis player to top the world rankings in the doubles department.
Mirza took the world by storm in 2015 by winning 10 titles, including two Grand Slams. Not to deny the hand Swiss queen Martina Hingis played in Mirza’s rise to the peak this year. The pair entered the Indian Wells as the top seeds and defeated second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina to secure the title. They also won the Miami Masters, again beating the same opponents. The duo made it hattrick of titles by winning the Family Circle Cup’s in April, defeating Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak without much of a challenge.
The victory meant even more for the Indian, as Mirza became the first Indian to be ranked world No. 1 in WTA’s doubles rankings. The pair entered the French Open as top seeds but failed to live up to the level and crashed out in quarterfinals. But, they went on to win the next two Slams (Wimbledon and US Open).
Notably at SW19’s final, Mirza-Hingis and Ekaterina Makarova-Elena Vesnina each claimed a set and in the decider the Indo-Swiss pair was 2-5 down before clawing their way back. But a fierce rally saw them draw level at 5-all, and then the No.1-seeded Swiss-Indian broke the No.2-seeded Russians to serve out for a gritty 5-7, 7-6(4), 7-5 victory. The Indo-Swiss pair also stormed through the year ending WTA Finals by securing the title without losing a single set in the entire tournament.
Meanwhile, leander Paes also scripted history by notching up the US Open mixed doubles title with Hingis to become the format’s most successful male player in the Open era. The fourth seeded Indo-Swiss pair edged past Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey in a tricky final to win their third Major together this season.
The 42-year-old Paes has now won nine Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, surpassing former partner Mahesh Bhupathi. He is now only behind Martina Navratilova, who won 10 mixed doubles trophies. With his 4th Wimbledon mixed title, Paes now shares the record for most such titles in the gentlemen’s section in the open era with Owen Davidson.
History made on lankan soil
The Indian cricket team, under a new captain — Virat Kohli — made history in 2015 when they defeated Sri lanka on their own soil. Notably, it was India’s first ever series win in the Island nation since 1993.
Earlier in the year, MS Dhoni retired midway during the tour down-under and young Virat Kohli was given the responsibility to lead nation’s test side and he just about did what was needed from him.
Many greats had travelled to Sri lanka before but struggled on the lankan soil. But Captain Kohli, and his team, did it with his first outing as a full time Indian skipper.
The start of the tournament was not as expected for the men in blue. A batting collapse in second innings resulted in a loss by 63 runs for Indian.
The young Indian side, however, came back with a bang in second test. India won the test by a comprehensive margin of 278 runs. In the decider final test, India defeated the hosts by 117 runs to win the series 2-1 writing history.
The series win embarked the beginning of a new era in which the Indian team looks more determined and aggressive to win the test matches, rather than playing to save them. later in the year Indians also whitewashed South Africa 3-0 and they have emerged as the team to fear.
Hockey Eves book Rio ticket
Indian women will be taking the flight to Rio de Janeiro to play their first Olympic Games in 36 years and this long wait was confirmed by virtue of England making their way to the final of the European Championships (which they won over Netherlands). This meant the Ritu Rani led side was the highest ranked amongst the non-qualified teams as all continental champions take a place.
Their fifth place finish at the Hockey World league semi-finals in Antwerp made this possible. The team didn’t hesitate to capture this beautiful moment by standing together after the 1-0 win against Japan in their last game.
The women last played a part in the quadrennial event at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow where they finished a respectable fourth.
Their counterparts enjoyed an equally good year despite turbulence surrounding coach Paul Van Ass’ exit. The prime amongst them has to be the recent Bronze medal finish at the Hockey league Finals in Raipur. Boosted by PR Sreejesh’s heroics yet again, the Indian side beat the mighty Dutch in penalty shootout and brought the crowd to its feet. Absurdly, the game had 10 goals (5-5 at the end of regulation time) and Sardar Singh side had to come from behind on ocassions to win on home soil. Thus ending a 33-year long wait without a medal in a major tournament for a nation whose claim to fame in the highest sporting competition is in hockey itself.
Inderjeet’s golden finish
Inderjeet Singh uplifted Indian athletics to new heights by clinching the gold in the Asian Athletics Championships.
Inderjeet, a bronze medal winner at last year’s Asian Games in Incheon, went into the championships as Asian leader after winning gold in the Federation Cup Senior Nationals in Mangaluru. He lived up to the expectation by clinching gold by heaving the iron ball to a new championship record of 20.41m, which he achieved in his fourth attempt.
The 27-year-old became only the eighth Indian shot putter to win a gold medal in the history of Asian championships, joining Jagraj Singh (1973), Bahadur Singh (1975), Balwinder Singh (1985 and 1989), Shakti Singh (2000), Navpreet Singh (2007) and Om Prakash(2009).
Soon after, the Haryana shot putter enjoyed a medal rush when he won the gold at the Asian Athletics Grand Prix Series in Bangkok, followed by another gold medal in the World University Games, Gwangju, South Korea. This was Inderjeet’s fifth gold medal so far in 2015. Prior to the gold in Asian Championships, he also bagged gold in each of the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix in Thailand.
Apurvi bang on mark
Jitu Rai, the ‘Pistol King’ and ranked number two in Asia became first Indian shooter to earn an Olympic quota for next summer’s showpiece at Rio when he clinched silver medal at Shooting World Championships held in Spain in September 2014. The Army marksman missed out on the yellow medal by just 1.2 points. This was Jitu’s fifth consecutive international medal.
Come 2015, the shooter added one silver and one bronze to his already filled kitty. But with so many expectations from the prime shooter of country, Jitu is feeling the pressure of Olympics to which he said, "I am happy that I got an Olympic quota but with that there is added responsibility on my shoulders. I have to make my country proud."
Jitu was also conferred with Arjuna award for his contribution over last two years.
If Jitu is the King of shooting, then young shooter Apurvi Chandela is undoubtedly the Queen of the same sport in the nation. Chandela was second shooter to bag a spot in Rio 2016 during the ISSF World Cup at Korea in April when she bagged bronze medal in 10m air rifle event.
She also bagged silver medal at ISSF World Cup final. In the recently concluded National shooting championship, Apurvi won the gold medal in 10m air rifle event.
Special Olympics, special show
Indian Special Olympics team of 275 athletes returned with 173 medals under their name from the Special Olympic World Summer Games 2015, los Angeles.
The India team won 47 gold, 54 silver and 72 bronze in their World beating campaign. The Indian team, who played under the banner of Special Olympics Bharat, finished third in the multi-sport event for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
The USA team finished first, while the team from China bagged the second spot. A total of 6500 athletes from 177 countries competed.
Among those impressed, Ranvir Singh Saini created history by becoming the first Indian golfer to win a gold medal. Indian athletes won 47 medals in athletics, which was the main contribution to the medal’s tally.
Athletes from Asha Kiran Home, Delhi, won a total of seven medals. Phoolan Devi started the gold count for India when she finished at top in the power-lifting (Bench Press category). Apart from that, the ‘super girl’ from India won three Bronze medals in different power-lifting categories.
These athletes are a perfect example of dedication and fighting spirits. They not only had to fight their opponents but they had to defy all odds at the personal level as well. Their hard work and unmatched passion inspired many and also earned praise from all parts of the nation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Achievements of Indian contingent at Special Olympics are truly gladdening. They are India’s pride."