CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 116 of 120

Correct — B, Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal, Lakshya Sen. All three of these players have reached an All England final. Pullela Gopichand won the title in 2001 at Birmingham, beating the world number one Peter Gade in the semi-final and Chen Hong in the final, becoming the second Indian champion after Prakash Padukone's win in 1980. Saina Nehwal was the first Indian woman to reach an All England final, losing the 2015 title match to Carolina Marin. Lakshya Sen reached the final in 2022 and lost to Viktor Axelsen. Each of the other three options is spoiled by at least one name that has never gone that far at the All England — P. V. Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth have all had fine careers without an All England final between them.

• (a)Prakash Padukone, P. V. Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap — Padukone belongs — he won in 1980 — but neither P. V. Sindhu nor Parupalli Kashyap has reached an All England final.
• (c)Prakash Padukone, Pullela Gopichand, Srikanth Kidambi — The two champions are correctly named, but Kidambi Srikanth has never reached an All England final, so the set fails on its third member.
• (d)Lakshya Sen, Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu — Two of the three are right. P. V. Sindhu, for all her world titles and Olympic medals, has not reached an All England final.

The All England Open is the oldest badminton tournament in the world, first played in 1899, and for most of the twentieth century it served as the game's unofficial world championship. India's record there is short but distinguished: Prakash Padukone won the men's singles in 1980, the first Indian champion, and Pullela Gopichand won it in 2001. On the women's side Saina Nehwal's 2015 final was the first by an Indian woman, and Lakshya Sen's 2022 final was the first men's singles final by an Indian since Gopichand's win.

A set-selection item like this is decided by the weakest name in each option, so the efficient method is to hunt for one player who does not belong rather than to verify all three. P. V. Sindhu is the trap, appearing in two options; her honours are Olympic and World Championship medals, not an All England final. Kidambi Srikanth, who spoils option (c), is likewise a former world number one and a World Championship finalist without an All England final. Once those two names are set aside only option (b) survives. A present-day note: Lakshya Sen reached the All England final again in 2026, losing to Lin Chun-yi, so India's tally of finals has grown since this paper was set.

• Prakash Padukone won the All England title in 1980, the first Indian to do so.
• Pullela Gopichand won it in 2001, beating world number one Peter Gade in the semi-final and Chen Hong in the final.
• Saina Nehwal was the first Indian woman to reach an All England final, losing to Carolina Marin in 2015.
• Lakshya Sen was runner-up in 2022, losing to Viktor Axelsen, and reached the final again in 2026.
• P. V. Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap have never reached an All England final.

• Assuming India's most decorated players must have All England finals — P. V. Sindhu does not.
• Confusing the All England Open with the World Championships; different tournaments, different Indian records.
• Forgetting that reaching the final counts here, not only winning — the stem says won or secured the runner-up position.

As a set-selection item where one wrong name spoils an option, or as a straight question on who won a named title in a named year.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who was the first Indian to win the All England Open badminton title?

  • (a)Pullela Gopichand
  • (b)Prakash Padukone
  • (c)Nandu Natekar
  • (d)Syed Modi

  Answer(b) Prakash Padukone — he won in 1980, and Pullela Gopichand followed in 2001.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Saina Nehwal lost the 2015 All England final to which player?

  • (a)Tai Tzu-ying
  • (b)Carolina Marin
  • (c)Nozomi Okuhara
  • (d)Wang Yihan

  Answer(b) Carolina Marin of Spain — Saina was the first Indian woman to reach an All England final.