The smashing rise of Indian badminton

The overall conditions for Indian badminton were never so favourable. First the big news: Vodafone has agreed to sponsor the upcoming IBL to be held from 14^th August to 31^st August 2013. This is major news, as previously big corporate houses seldom supported sports apart from cricket.

Next comes the real great news – on the court. Our star shuttlers Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap and P V Sindhu have won their pre-quarter final matches in the on-going World Badminton Championship being held at Guangzhou, China.

The youngest of the three, PV Sindhu created a big upset in the women’s singles when she defeated the local favourite Yihan Wang by 21-18, 23-21. The amazing thing is that Sindhu took just 55 minutes to perform this miracle. Another notable factor is that in the month of May 2013, Sindhu was defeated by Yihan in the Sudirman Cup.

Sindhu’s height proved to be an advantage, as her drop shots helped her to achieve this victory. Her next encounter is against seventh seed Shixin Wang, and we do hope that she will definitely repeat the same sensational performance. In comparison to her shaky performance yesterday, today she was able to sustain the lead which proved vital.

I want to pen down a statement given by Sindhu just a few days back. When asked about this encounter, she said that she takes it one match at a time and prepares accordingly. She also said that she was working hard and was hopeful of winning this match. This depicts the level of confidence she had even before the match.

Somewhere in our heart, we were quite hopeful that Saina Nehwal would surely beat Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, as she did during their previous five encounters. She did it. Though she lost the first set by a close margin of 18-21, but as usual she was quick to recover.

She won both the next sets with the score line of 21-16 and 21-14. The match lasted for 52 minutes in all. To be precise, her aggression, clubbed with smartly executed half smashes, helped her a lot. Also, her visible supremacy in net play proved to be the difference. Porntip was trying to use her height advantage, but ultimately Saina’s talent prevailed. It was good to see Saina improving after a rather lull period. As one of her fan described her, Saina is virtually a light house for Indian badminton.

The Indian challenge in the men’s wing more or less depends on the shoulders of P Kashyap. I personally admire his commendable fighting spirit. In last year’s London Olympics, Kashyap had revealed that he was suffering from a severe backache and had to rely on pain killers to compete. Perhaps it is the same fighting spirit which helped him defeat world number 6 Yun Ho in straight sets, 21-13and 21-16.

Kashyap is himself ranked 13^th, so this was quite an upset. Remarkably, this third round match lasted for only 37 minutes. He basically relied on his powerful smashes – 17 in all. He was so comfortable in this match that at one stage he was leading by a huge margin of 8 points.

The best part is that Indians have not only made a mark in the International arena of badminton, but with just one more win, all the three players will be entitled to at least a bronze medal. We certainly have our fingers crossed.

The upcoming IBL will also take Indian badminton to new heights. Such leagues are rare for non-cricket sports in India, and this will certainly go a long way in promoting badminton. Perhaps the big money pumped into the sport is also motivating the players further! Anyway, badminton in India is the winner.