Young badminton star Varun Kapur earned World No. 2 spot in BWF U-19 singles rankings

17-year-old Pune's badminton star Varun Kapur bagged the world no. 2 rankings in U-19 boys’ singles category as Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings announced on Tuesday.

It is Varun's best achievement so far; he said “One of the main things I was improving on was my speed on the court. I guess three things – speed, patience, and strength. I am not very strong, I am agile, so I have to focus a lot on my strength training, so I have been training with the fitness coach Kaifi Afzal and mental fitness coach Gayatri Vartak. The main thing while switching from junior to senior, will be motivation. Keeping yourself motivated is tough since you might not get results straight away. It’s all about having belief and self-confidence which is required the most".

Even though 2020 was devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, Kapur still participated in three tournaments in 2020. He participated in the first two games in February; the Hungarian International Junior Championship, where he finished as a runner up, then in the same month, Kapur participated in the Dutch Junior International, in which he failed to advance to the final, then the Portuguese International Junior, where he became the champion.

Kapur, sponsored by the Virat Kohli Foundation, Kanetkar Sports Foundation (KSF) and Li-Ning, added, “It makes you deal with different situations because the game style is different abroad. You have to adopt the game style, and it helps you improve your game”.