The men’s and women’s singles final in the just-concluded Senior National badminton championship in Guwahati failed to rise to the expectation of the fans as Sourabh Verma and Saina Nehwal thoroughly dominated the proceedings on the final day.
Apart from the mixed doubles final, that went to three games, the other doubles events also saw one-sided contest in the summit clashes. But the 83rd edition of the championship had enough talking points for everyone involved to ponder and remember.
We take a look at some of them:
Sindhu looked flat
The obvious talking point of the senior nationals was the mouthwatering clash between PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. The former’s decision to train separately in another Gopichand Academy facility after losing the Commonwealth Games final to her senior compatriot and the ensuing tension between the two meant that everyone expected an high octane clash.
But it was anything but one. Nehwal was as expected pumped up and employed the same tactics of going for her smashes and overpowering her opponent.
On the other hand, Sindhu looked completely out of sorts as she hardly managed to engage the eventual champion in long rallies or play her trademark drives and smashes. The world championship silver medallist clearly struggled with control of her strokes with the lifts and clearances either going long or just about reaching mid court.
The lack of control, which one could notice even during her semi-final against Ashmita Chaliha, could be down to the fact that Sindhu had recently moved from Yonex to Li-Ning and is perhaps still finding her bearings with the new racquets and shoes. She had suffered similarly in the final of the South Asian Games in 2016 when she had lost to Ruthvika Shivani after making a switch other way round just before that event.
That should, however, not take anything away from Nehwal. The 28-year-old was clinical and ensured that every time Sindhu had a chance to find a toe-hold into the match, she would nip that in the bud with some aggressive stroke play.
Lakshya Sen has come a long way
Lakshya Sen made it to his second final in three years but could not get the better of Verma, who bagged his third title.
Verma had won all their previous four meetings in the run up to the final but a lot was expected from the Asian junior champion simply because of the way he played through out the tournament.
The Youth Olympics silver medallist is high on confidence having won a medal in all the major junior events at the end of the year and the efforts being put on his overall physical conditioning beginning to show results. The court conditions at the TRP stadium in Guwahati were on the slower side, which meant that players needed to work harder to earn points.
Sen, who is working with Olympic Gold Quest-provided trainer Mobya Duyu, played every day starting from the Inter-State championship which preceded the Open Nationals and the final was the 10th match for him in seven days considering that he had a bye in the opening round of the individual event.
Despite the grueling schedule, the way Sen demolished the experienced P Kashyap — who got a direct entry in the Super Draw at the pre-quarterfinal stage, in the semifinals would have made most of those present in the stadium that day to put money on the youngster in the final.
Sen’s fluid court movement have always been his strong point but the world junior championship bronze medallist was brutal with his smashes and at times overpowered his opponent with the sheer power he was packing behind his strokes.
He started in a similar fashion in the final against Verma and had raced to a 11-6 lead in the opening game before his opponent changed tactics. Sen needed to show more patience to counter Verma’s guile and ability to slow down the pace of the match.
But one must not forget that Sen hasn’t yet played a full year on the senior circuit and given how quick a learner he is, the youngster would pick up these tactical nuances sooner rather than later.
However, one thing is clear. The senior nationals showed how much Sen has progressed in the last two years and if this graph is maintained, sky is the limit for this trainee from the Prakash Padukone Academy.
Nationals structure needs a rethink
The problems surrounding the court conditions and change in scheduling after Nehwal’s objection notwithstanding, there is an urgent need to revisit the way the senior nationals are conducted.
It is very clear if the top players have to play in the senior nationals, something the Badminton Association of India insists, then the court conditions and other facilities will have to be perfect and up to the international standards.
This means that the cost of hosting the nationals will go up exponentially and the fact is that there are not many takers for hosting the event anymore. Even this year, Telangana was initially supposed to host the event but backed out at the last minute apparently due to funds constraint.
Though the Badminton Association of India gives the hosts Rs 50 lakh, which is the enhanced prize money, the hosts have to provide free boarding and lodging to all the participants and five star accommodation to the top stars.
The other problem is the size of the draw and the duration of the tournament. The BAI, inexplicably, decided to cut the number of days of the tournament from six days to five. This means that any singles player who is playing from the first round has to play two matches a day for the first three days and a doubles player in two events a total of four matches a day, leaving them drained by the time the Super Draw starts.
BAI also needs to ensure that those performing in the Nationals should be rewarded with at least a berth in the core group or the second rung players who are not already part of the core group will have little motivation to give their best. Subhakar Dey, who reached the semi-finals in the last edition in Nagpur, was never considered for the core group while many who had not performed well continued to be in the list. He then went on to win the prestigious SaarLorLux Open, raising more questions on how the core group gets selected.