INDIAN BADMINTON IN 2019

After the glorious days of 2017, Indian badminton, especially men's singles, went through a little bit of a regression in 2018. Sindhu kept the flame burning with 3 big finals appearances in World Championships, Asian Games & World Tour Finals. 2019 proved to be even worse with even fewer bright moments. As expectation is rising, Indian players are buckling under pressure. With 2020 being an Olympic year, the signs are not encouraging.

Having said that, India are a very young badminton nation. We lack the depth and resources of the more affluent and more experienced badminton powerhouses like China, Indonesia, Denmark, Japan etc. These sort of teething problems are expected. As the saying goes, tañcāvūr periya kōvil was not built in a day. We need to be patient and help our players grow with encouragement along with legitimate criticism. As someone trying to convert to a glass half-full person from a bitter glass half-empty person, I want to look at the positives in a season that had very few of them.

MOST MEN'S SINGLES PLAYERS IN THE TOP 50

Indian men's singles players did not win a single Super 300 or above title. In fact, only Srikanth Kidambi (India Open-Super 500) and Sourabh Verma (Syed Modi International-Super 300) managed to reach a 300 or above final. Sai Praneeth's appearance in the penultimate round of the Japan Open (Super 750), was the only appearance by an Indian men's singles shuttler during the weekend of a "big tournament".

But! There's always a but. But, Indian men's singles shuttlers still have the most players in the top 50 (8) along with China who also have 8. Srikanth, Prannoy, Sameer all struggled with injuries. Kashyap found form in his mid-30s. Sourabh reached a career high. Despite umpteen problems, Indian men did just enough to stay in the top 50. It is important to have many players in the top 50 and top 100 to keep a culture of badminton alive. 

P V SINDHU BREAKS HER JINX

Sindhu started the year in terrible fashion getting thrashed by every comer & goer. One month before the World Championships, she found form in the Indonesia Super 1000 open. She scored big wins over Okuhara & Chen YuFei to reach the final. At that moment, Yours Truly knew she was going to win gold in Basel. Sindhu is a big tournament player, probably only 2nd to Carolina Marin. She had reached the finals in each of the 3 previous biggest tournaments of the year (2016 Olympics, 2017 & 2018 World Championships) and each one ended in a heartbreak. 2016 loss was down to inexperience & 2017 loss was an epic match that could have gone either way. 2018 was the only inexplicable loss. I still don't know what happened to her from 15-11 up in Nanjing. It was most uncharacteristic of her.

She started her campaign in Basel with a comfortable win over Pai Yu-po 14 & 15. In the 2nd round she proceed to thrash Beiwen Zhang, who always troubled her, 14 & 6. This set up a blockbuster quarterfinal with the mesmeric but mercurial Tai Tzu-ying. The Taiwanese shuttler had won 6 of the previous 7 encounters against Sindhu but Sindhu had won their last meeting in Guangzhou. Tai started in blazing fashion winning the 1st game in just 15 minutes. Sindhu raised her level in game 2 and won a pulsating battle 23-21 in game that lasted nearly twice as long as the first. An epic back and forth 3rd game was won 21-19 by Sindhu to enter the semifinals and with that maintaining an Indian podium finish for the 9th straight year (all by women) at the Olympics/World Championships.

With sky high confidence after eliminating her nemesis, Sindhu turned on the after-boosters to absolutely pulverize & pound Chen YuFei & Nozomi Okuhara, her conqueror in Glasgow, to pieces and break her gold duck at the World Championships. She became only the 2nd women's singles shuttler to win 5 medals at the World Championships after 2-time Olympic gold medallist Zhang Ning. Sindhu silenced her bitterest of critics in resounding fashion. Unfortunately, this took a lot out of her mentally and she couldn't build on it for the rest of the season. As usual she raised her game in the World Tour Finals but a lack of match practice and lesser mental edge saw her drop 2 1-game leads against Akane Yamaguchi & Chen YuFei and her season couldn't end on a bright note. 

Regardless, Sindhu proved she's one of the best big match players and 2020 being an Olympic year, I am 1000% sure she'll bring the goods in Japan and deliver a gold. Even Maths is in her favour.

2012 London: Bronze
2016 Rio: Silver
2020 Tokyo: Gold

Maths never lies!

BHAMIDIPATI SAI PRANEETH ENDS A 36 YEAR DROUGHT

Sai Praneeth was always considered a great talent. He has silky skills, softest of touches & the creativity on par with almost anyone that has ever picked up a racquet. His biggest enemy is (lack of) endurance and mental strength. Sai showed some good form a couple of times this year. He lost to Momota after saving 2 match points in the 3rd game in Singapore. Before that he had defeated Chen Long in Basel and was 3 points away from Swiss Open title against Shi Yuqi before his biggest enemy, stamina, let him down.

He did not come to Basel in the best of forms but the steady, nearly drift-free conditions St. Jakobshalle arena were perfect for his timing based game. He defeated Canadian Ho-shue in the first round and a very tricky Lee Dong-kuen both in straight games to set up a quarterfinal clash with Anthony Ginting. Sai kept up with the speedy Indonesian for most of the game before the little man created an 18-15 separation. Usually, Sai would fade away at this point but somehow he steeled himself to steal game 1 21-19. Ginting recovered in game 2 to create an 11-8 lead at the interval. Whatever Park Tae-sang told him worked because Sai just dropped 1 point after the break to blaze away to a 21-12 victory!

Up next was another young Indonesia star in the making, the reigning Asian games champ, Jonatan Christie. Sai won a seesaw first 24-22 after missing 2 game points and saving 1. The game took out a lot physically from both players. The younger Christie seemed the more tired of the two in game 2 as Sai just kept putting the shuttle in play and the Indonesian kept making error after error to give Sai the game 21-14 and with it the match to give him a place in the last four. This also meant that Sai Praneeth became the 1st Indian to reach the World Championships since Prakash Padukone in 1983. Unfortunately, Sai was also mentally and physically spent after two draining battles against young stars and was brushed aside with effortless ease by Kento Momota in the semis. Regardless, a 36 year drought was ended and gave Indian badminton fans a lot of joy! The joy was doubly sweet because it was Sai Praneeth who was much derided for his lack of effort and guts.

TEENAGER LAKSHYA SEN RISES AND RISES

Just 7 months after turning 16, Lakshya Sen faced the GOAT Lin Dan in Auckland. He raced away to win the 1st game 21-15. The wily veteran wore the boy down to win in 3 games. He faced the GOAT again in Thomas Cup a couple of months later. Again he won the 1st game, again the old man wore the kid down to win in 3 games. Maybe this boy is one to watch out for. Later in the year he won the Junior Badminton Asia Championships, won silver in the Youth Olympics and bronze in the Junior World Championships. 

Come 2019, he decided junior badminton was enough. He was now ready for the big boys and targeted a top 30 finish by the end of the year. He reached a couple of finals in the spring but lost his way through the summer and re-calibrated his year end goal to a top 50 finish. By now, Prakash Padukone tied up with his friend and Danish legend Morten Frost to send young Lakshya (and a few others from his academy) to train and play in Denmark.

Lakshya began the fall with a victory in the Belgian Challenge. A couple of weeks later he won his first BWF World Tour title, a Super 100, at the Dutch Open dropping just 2 games in a 48 draw (6 rounds instead of the usual 5) tournament. This win elevated his ranking and gave him a 1st round bye in the Saarlorlux Open. Lakshya won his second Super 100 but this time needed 3 tough 3 gamers to win the title. A tired Lakshya lost in the 2nd round of the Irish Open before regrouping to win the Scottish Open. A jet-lagged Lakshya got a walkover in the last Super 300 tournament at home, the Syed Modi International. He was still jet-lagged when he lost to former World No 1 Son Wan-ho. Later, he entered the Bangladesh Challenge and won his 5th title of the year to end the year on a high. This also meant that Lakshya reached no 32 on the World Rankings. He just missed out on his spring target but bettered his fall target by 18 ranks. 

This means that he gets to play in the qualifying rounds of Malaysia & Indonesia Masters in the 1st and 2nd weeks of January. He faces veteran Thai Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the former and veteran Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the latter. Entering the main draw will give him a lot of points to further rise. Who knows he might even steal a 2nd place for Tokyo! He's just ~7000 points behind a top 16 place. To play in Tokyo 2020, after all, was his target when he was 12 years old!

THE FOALS HAVE ARRIVED

Bayern Munich have dominated Bundesliga since its inception but it was Borussia Mönchengladbach that was its first superstar side. Led by Heynckes, Netzer, Vogts et al they were 1st team to win back to back Bundesliga titles and the first to win 5 Bundesliga titles. They were called Die Fohlen i.e. The Foals because they were young, fast and aggressive. I named our Indian duo, Satwik & Chirag, The Foals after Gladbach because they are young (19 & 22), fast & aggressive.

This year began in awful fashion for the Foals. Satwik was injured and didn't return until May. They won a Brazilian Challenge and were struggling for decent form as Satwik couldn't find good rhythm. Then, came the Thailand Open. They were in the bottom half with the Daddies (Ahsan/Setiawan) & Kamura/Sonoda as the top 2 seeds in said half. They got a lucky break as both pairs lost in the 1st round. The Foals eliminated the 6th seeds Alfian/Ardianto in the round of 16 and defeated 2 Korean pairs, one of the qualifiers and the other were a veteran pair who had won the 2014 World Championship: Ko Sung-hyun/Shin Baek-cheol, in 3 games. Their opponents in the final were the reigning World Champs, Twin Towers: Liu Yuchen/Li Jinhui.

The Foals created history by defeating them in 3 pulsating games, as the Chinese pair struggled to cope with the speed & power of the young Indian duo. They became the first Indian doubles pair to win a Super 500 tournament. They were seeded for the World Championships in Basel, meaning they got a first round bye. Unfortunately, Satwik wasn't fit enough and the pair had to withdraw. Satwik struggled with further fitness issues and it wasn't until Paris that they found form. After a straightforward win in the 1st round, The Foals faced the reigning world champions, The Daddies this time, again and scored a 2nd giant killing win of the season. They went on to reach the final to meet The Minions on dīpāvaḷi day. A nervous pair couldn't better their result in Bangkok & lost to 18 & 16 facing a few execution issues during crunch time.

Following their first ever final appearance in a 750 tournament, also the first by an Indian pair, The Foals entered the last 750 tournament, Fuzhou China Open as one of the favourites. They defeated 6th seeds Endo/Watanabe in the 2nd round and set up a 2nd clash with the home team: The Twin Towers. This time the boys had no issues to dealing with the Chinese pair and defeated them in 2 straight games to the reverberating chants of bhārat mātā kī jai by Indian medical students. They faced the Minions again but lost an even closer encounter 16-21, 20-22. They saved a match point but it wasn't enough in the end.

Satwik's lack of match fitness was in full view as the Foals ended the season with back to back exits in the 1st round in Hong Kong & Syed Modi. A whimper of a finish notwithstanding, it was an exceptional season for the Foals having played for just 5 months. They reached a career high 7th rank and are currently 12th. The good news is that defend zero points until May and every run will add to their ranking points. Deep runs in a few tournaments could see them be seeded in the top 4 for Tokyo. Plus, India become genuine contenders for Thomas Cup in May where usually our doubles teams end up being our Achilles heel!

An exciting 2020 awaits. I am sure Guru Gopi has made all sorts of notes to fix the major issues plaguing our boys & girls and we shall find our glorious 2017 form again! Onward and upwards! Keep Calm & Jay Śrī Rām!










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