Feet on the ground, eyes on the world: 20-year-old Manraj getting used to the top-level grind
For someone with only two years on the senior circuit and in his first year on the BWF World Tour, Manraj Singh has been grabbing eyeballs in Lucknow.
With two big wins under his belt, including against HS Prannoy in the second round of the Syed Modi India International on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals, the 20-year-old has been one of the most impressive youngsters. The range of strokes and aggressive play he brings on court, however, is replaced by a tongue-tied kid still relishing the experience off it.
“ Mujhe to unke sath khel ke hi khushi mil gayi thi, wo bahut bade player hain aur mere se bahut zyada experienced, jeet ke to aur bhi achha lag raha hai (I was happy simply playing against him, he is a very big player and a lot more experienced than me, winning against him feels even better),” was all he could say after his win against Prannoy, the biggest of his fledgling career.
A Faridabad resident who started playing after accompanying his father and elder brother to the badminton courts, Manraj has been training with Sagar Chopra at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy for the past two years.
“It has been a great learning opportunity, and you get a lot of good sparring partners. Before that, I trained with Anshul Mehta and Ashok Mehta locally.
“At the junior level, I was advised by my coach to focus only on that and develop my game and not mix things with the senior circuit, unlike many others. I have been playing at the senior level only after turning 18, which is why there are so few tournaments against my name. This is only my third Super 300 event, all this year only,” he explained.
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Against Prannoy, Manraj was incessant with his attack, relying on his height. He kept pushing the senior pro hard without giving him a chance to take control. It was the same against S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian in the opening round, who is a former World Junior No.1 and a year older than Manraj.
“I went with the same attacking mindset today also to give my best without thinking about the result. I know that Prannoy also has a strong attacking game, so I tried to keep it with me as much as possible and played a lot more on the net to get points. It felt good,” he added.
A B.Com student at Chandigarh University, Manraj’s immediate target is playing more Super 300 and 500 tournaments. “My world ranking is 73, so I can get entries easily in 300 and 500 events for more international exposure and ranking points before aiming higher. I am also focussed on the World Tour only at the moment, but if I get a chance, I would love to be at the Asian Games also,” he said.
The lack of words doesn’t reflect his clarity of thought. “My idol has always been Lee Chong Wei. I really like his game style and would love to one day play like him. The ultimate target, though, is to become World No. 1 someday,” he declared.
Published on Nov 27, 2025
