The ‘golden era of Indian badminton’ was unquestionably extended at the World Badminton Championships 2017 at Glasgow.
In the past seven years, India had medalled at the biggest badminton championships—each Olympics and World Championships since 2011.
Considering the recent performances of the Indian players at various international tournaments, at this particular championship, the expectation of a two-medal haul besides an upgrade from the silver medal of 2015 was not far-fetched.
Our players almost lived up to those expectations, winning two medals, a silver and a bronze at the single most important and prestigious championship for the sport of badminton (this outside the Olympics as that is a multi-sport event).
Let’s fast forward to the semi-finals by which time Saina Nehwal and P.V.Sindhu had already assured India of two medals creating history.
Former world no. 1 Saina was on court first, up against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, All-England champion 2016. With a 6-1 head-to-head record, Saina would have easily been the favourite but for a career threatening knee injury sustained a year ago and low self-belief towards closing stages of matches ever since.
At this match, we had the original Saina back – maybe not in exact terms of fitness, as age enforces limitations, but definitely in terms of grit and self-confidence. She kept up in the long, fast-paced rallies for most part and used her experience to read the game well. After pocketing the first game, it was the lasting power that did her in and she succumbed 12-21, 21-17, 21-10. There is no doubt that had she had more rest after her quarter-final match the previous evening, she could have done better. But would it have been enough to see her through this match? Guess one will never know.
Saina fought very hard for a very deserving second World Championship medal. Though it was a slight trip up from the silver of 2015, to me this bronze was worth just as much or probably more as this time she had fought through many battles on and off court. As I heard cricketer V.V.S. Laxman say in an interview once that it’s easy to play well when you are in form, but it’s the times that you dig deep into your reserves and resolve to achieve, that’s when it counts the most. Saina had risen higher as only a true champion does.
Sindhu had a relatively easier semi-final against world junior champion Chen Yufei from China. The stage was set for a mega final clash against Okuhara. The stakes were high as neither of the players or anyone from their country had won a world title before.
For the very first time, 22-year old Sindhu went into such a big contest as the favourite, clearly on accord of that Rio Olympic silver medal where incidentally she had beaten Okuhara very convincingly in the semis. It would be natural to think Sindhu would have the mental edge going into the match, yet I had a sneaky feeling that the wound of the Olympic loss would strengthen Okuhara more.
Considering the slow playing conditions, it was expected that the final would be a slugfest–but absolutely nothing could have prepared us for what we eventually witnessed. Touted as one of the best women’s singles matches in the history of world badminton, the 1hour 50mins battle had us bite our fingers off along with our fingernails.
Two-time world championship bronze medallist, Sindhu had a perceivably different approach to her opponent from that of her teammate Saina on the previous day. Cognizant of the fact that Okuhara had an untiring defence, Saina relied on her court craft to carve out her points. Sindhu seemed a little more patient and prepared to take on the longer rallies and counted on her fitness to see her through. In her post match press conference, she admitted that she knew it would be a long match and somewhere I feel that had a bearing on her attitude going into the match. She had a more of a tortoise approach. While we know how that fable ended, this time it was not to be. The Oku-hare had other plans—she did not stop to rest, not even for a moment.
Not only did this five-ft one-inch tall Japanese relent on the pace but her tenacity was impeccable too. Agile, alive and armoured with unshakeable self-belief, in each rally she ricocheted off the court lines like a carrom piece on a board. Sindhu had ceded control to her opponent, being content to chase the shuttle all over the court and look for unforced errors that did not come.
It would be obvious to compare a jump-smashing Sindhu from the Olympics to the one we saw in this match. But the court conditions were very different, evident from the famed 73-shot rally, one of the many punishing ones of the match. Faster shuttles could have made all the difference for Sindhu as normally her 5ft 11inch frame sets her up for a stinging attack. Here she played outside her comfort zone. Envisage a Federer at the French Open.
The match was filled with full-on drama. The score stayed level almost right though. Both the players seemed to have emerged from superhero tale. And if there was any villain there, it was the chair umpire who was constantly cautioning the players to play on while they were feeling winded, wounded and dying to wind up. At 12-12 in the third game, Sindhu was fouled with a yellow card for delaying play.
She need to buy time to recover as she admitted later. With a 48min marathon third game, the match seemed never-ending. The television commentators were even discussing an eventuality of both players suffering cramps simultaneously. Sindhu squandered a 19-17 lead and eventually the match ended on a sour note for India –19-21, 22-20, 20-22. Just like P.T.Usha in 1984 Olympic final, Sindhu did not thrust forward at the finish line.
The superhuman effort and phenomenal resilience of both the players was acknowledged world over. All will unanimously agree that both the players really really deserved to win. I came across the most apt solution for this post-match quandary as the tweet read ‘Electrum is an alloy of Gold and Silver. Best would be to make two medals of it, and give one each to Sindhu and Okuhara.’
In an article, Nikhil Latey, a top sports physio mentioned that players would need at least a couple of days rest to physically recover from a match like this. For Sindhu however, the World Championship and Olympic titles slipping through so narrowly will need a different kind of recovery.
It’s a good thing that the international badminton tournament calendar has many challenges to offer in the days to come. While the Superseries tournament titles and the world no.1 ranking is always up for grabs, now it is the medals at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games 2018 that will be a priority. Here we have plenty of reasons to hope that the tricolour will be hoisted many times over.
