Bangalore: A clutch of fresh faces emerged winners at the National Badminton Championships here on Wednesday, making it seem like this was an event destined to mark a new chapter in India’s badminton history.
At the end of a week of high-quality badminton, two teenagers were crowned singles champions. Sourabh Verma, 19, and PV Sindhu, 16, are well set to join Saina and Co. as the flagbearers of Indian campaigns overseas, and more will be heard of them. Then there was the young pair of Arun Vishnu and Tarun Kona, so long having played second fiddle, who grabbed their opportunities in a tense men’s doubles finals to overcome veterans Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas.
Rupesh and Sanave’s loss meant that 10 would continue to be the jinxed number of Indian badminton. No player has won ten titles in a single event. Prakash Padukone had nine successive titles and was quelled dramatically by Syed Modi in his tenth final. Aparna Popat won nine successively; she didn’t contest a tenth. Rupesh was next in line, and few would’ve bet against him reaching his goal, but Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu played the match of their lives to deny their seniors. Sanave will rue the misjudgement at the line at 17-all in the third game; in a position to smash, he let it fall on the line, and the momentum shifted to the younger players.
PV Sindhu was unchallenged by Neha Pandit. The Maharashtra girl is a doughty fighter, but she could do precious little against the deadly missiles that came out of Sindhu’s racket. Smashes and drops, delivered at steep angles, homed in on the forecourt and Neha was left scrambling around as the first set ended 21-9 in quick time.
Neha tried gamely in the second and she had her moments when she engaged the junior champion in some long rallies. At times she was able to dictate proceedings, but these were few, and Sindhu fired in her smash at every opportunity to become one of the youngest senior national champions in the country’s history.
Sourabh Verma had to work harder because Sai Praneeth is a versatile player with enough skills to unseat him. Verma took an early lead at 10-6, but Praneeth fought back to 13-15. Just when it seemed he would pull up alongside, Verma stepped on the pedal and took the game. The top seed used every opportunity to smash and follow the return to the net, where he would kill it. Praneeth’s smashes, on the other hand, found it harder to get past the formidable defences of the Madhya Pradesh lad.
The second game was more competitive. Praneeth was able to move Verma around through sheer variety of strokeplay, and with a 19-16 lead, seemed to have done enough to take the match to a third game.
It was here that Verma’s mental toughness came on display. The top seed threw himself at every shuttle and drew up alongside until Praneeth wilted under the charge.
