Who among the following has won the women's single title in the Syed Modi International Tournament held in January 2022 ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, P. V. Sindhu. At the 2022 Syed Modi International, played from 18 to 23 January 2022 at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow, Sindhu won the women's singles title by beating her compatriot Malvika Bansod in the final, 21–13, 21–16. It was Sindhu's second title at this tournament, after 2017; she has since won it a third time, in 2024. The 2022 edition was a BWF World Tour Super 300 event and is remembered for something unprecedented as well: the men's singles title was not awarded at all, because both finalists — both from France — tested positive for COVID-19 before the final could be played. For a Uttar Pradesh paper the venue matters as much as the winner: this is Lucknow's own international badminton tournament, run by the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Association.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Jwala Gutta is a doubles player, not a singles player. Her international record is in women's doubles — most famously with Ashwini Ponnappa — and in mixed doubles, and she was no longer on the competitive international circuit by 2022. She could not have won a women's SINGLES title at this or any other tournament.  (c) Ashwini Ponnappa is likewise a doubles specialist. Her best-known results — the Commonwealth Games women's doubles gold in 2010 and a World Championships bronze in 2011 — both came in partnership with Jwala Gutta. Placing the two of them on the same option list is the examiner's way of testing whether a candidate knows the difference between India's doubles pair and its singles players; neither is a singles title contender.  (d) The genuinely dangerous distractor, because Saina Nehwal really has won this exact tournament — three times, in 2009, 2014 and 2015. She is a singles player of the first rank, an Olympic bronze medallist and a former world number one. But she did not win the 2022 edition; Sindhu did. This is why a current-affairs question must be answered for the year it names and not from a general memory of who usually wins.

Concept: The Syed Modi International is India's long-running international badminton tournament, inaugurated by the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Association in 1991 as a memorial event for Syed Modi, a Commonwealth Games champion. It is normally staged at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow, and by 2022 it sat on the BWF World Tour as a Super 300 event — the tier below the Super 500 and Super 750 tournaments, which makes it a realistic title for strong Indian players. Its women's singles roll of honour is dominated by India's two great singles players: Saina Nehwal took it in 2009, 2014 and 2015, and P. V. Sindhu in 2017, 2022 and 2024, with international champions such as Ratchanok Intanon, Carolina Marín and Nozomi Okuhara winning in other years.

State PCS 2022 Q53 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q53 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer