India's Saina Nehwal is the number-one ranked woman in a sport played by more than 200 million people.
In her country she’s one of the most recognisable sports personalities, featuring in TV advertisements and selling anything from cooking oil to ramen noodles.
“It's good to see that people follow me a lot now after so many wins," she said. "It's quite surprising when others outside cricket get that kind of fame, and I'm the one lucky person getting a lot of endorsements out there."
Nehwal had more than 5.7 million followers on social media.
She was once given a BMW for bringing glory to India by winning an Olympic bronze medal. The keys were handed over by Sachin Tendulkar.
She was the defending champion in Sydney.
Another huge drawcard was Lin Dan, a two-time Olympic gold medallist from China.
A lot of the Chinese media that travelled to Australia came to see him.
He said the sport was his future.
"I'm so lucky to have represented China for almost 15 years now, so lucky,” he said. "And I would like to keep going for a few years yet because I'm so passionate about playing."
Denmark’s Jan Jorgsen said he had to get through a “Chinese wall” to win in Sydney but he was making inroads, currently ranked number three.
He said it was not the $957,000 prize money on offer, rather the qualifying points for next year’s Rio Games that had brought the world’s elite to Australia.
