Indian Badminton Thread ...

[arjun2761]

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1011837

Most of China's Olympic success doesn't come from popularity among the people but rather from their communist era sports school system where promising kids identified through various physical markers spend all their time excelling at particular sports often from a very young age (even as young as 4). This generally results in them doing very well and dominating less deep sports (in terms of the countries with developed sports cultures participating).

This system typically doesn't work as well as the deeper (or more popular) world wide sport. Even if Basketball is popular in China, they are only 29th in the world in basketball and outside the top 80 (in soccer/football). Looks like the system is changing a little with wealthier parents playing more of role in at least some sports per the article but, for the most part, they don't excel at these sports at the world level even if they may do well in Asia at these newer, trendier sports.

[rajitghosh]

At the Arctic Open Sindhu is thrashing Okuhara. Are we seeing a comeback happening?

[SaniaFan]

Or Okuhara is also done?

[Sin Hombre]

She almost certainly is. Okuhara is 38 in the tour rankings this year.

[Saffron Lenin]

Current crop of players lack attacking and all-round game, says Saina Nehwal

"Yes, the gap is huge between us and the current crop of players. I feel the youngsters are relying a lot on drop shots and rally game, which is good but you need an all-round game. PV Sindhu and I play attacking game, if we want we can play aggressive game throughout the match. But that is not seen in these players. But there is good support now and a system in place. I think we will produce champions soon,” said the star shuttler.
Saina, the 33-year-old former World No.1, said that she feels happy when people say that her success made other players believe that they can achieve anything.

https://telanganatoday.com/current-crop ... ina-nehwal

[arjun2761]

Interesting perspective. When I watch most of the top women players (from Japan, China etc.), they mostly specialize in long rallies with drop shots and attack only occasionally. So, that is the winning style now, it seems. It does require fitness and quickness to be work and perhaps the Indian players aren't as good as the top players in those aspects.

[Saffron Lenin]

Badminton Pros rope Saina Nehwal as mentor


Badminton Pros, the coaching academy conceptualized by Vijay Lancy and Anup Sridhar, roped in London Olympic bronze medallist stuller Saina Nehwal as their mentor on Wednesday.

She now joins fellow shuttlers Parupalli Kashyma, RMV Gurusaidutt whose aim is to provide the best of facilities for the budding shuttlers who want to make it big. As a mentor, Saina will oversee and monitor the players’ development, helping them build mental fortitude and excel in their game.


https://telanganatoday.com/badminton-pr ... -as-mentor

[sameerph]

Sindhu is thru to the SF of Arctic open in Finland. After easy wins over Okuhara and 22nd ranked Wen Chi Hsu in first 2 rounds, today she had a hard fought 20-22 22-20 21-18 win over 26th ranked Vietnam girl Thuy Linh Nguyen. Nguyen had a couple of very good wins over much higher ranked players in first 2 rounds.

Sindhu will be up against 11th ranked Chinese Zhi Yi Wang in the SF.

[Omkara]

Post injury come backs are complicated. It takes serious toll on the body and mind. First time Sindhu stretched herself to win a match. She seemed to give up the moment the game slipped away. As if she had become a fatalist. Accepting defeat.

The belief in one's abilities is important. She will be tired. So most probably she will not be able to stretch herself today. But let's see if she can put a fight...

[rajitghosh]

Sindhu lost in the SF in 3 games.

[prasen9]

This year has not been good. For the first time since 2010, we did not have anyone in the BWF World Tour Finals this year. In essence, Prannoy and Laksha struggled through injuries. Siddhu too perhaps. A month lost for Satwick-Chirag. Not the only reason and we are perhaps going through a phase where we are waiting for the next generation to come up. But, still.

Here is a recap of the main contenders: Performance in 2023

[sameerph]

As I said in some other thread, Satwik-Chirag not being there is anomaly. They are currently ranked world #2. They could not qualify for world tour finals because their 2 biggest wins - Asian games and Asian championships did not count for that ( although it counted for world rankings).

About other I agree, Prannoy was the only one who may have missed out due to injury, others did not deserve to be there.

[sameerph]

This is a nice article about our improvement in doubles-

After Satwik-Chirag, a host of badminton doubles pairings ready to step up in Olympic year

I think it may be too late for any Indian pair other than Satwik-Chirag to be a medal contender at Paris but hopefully between Tresa, Gayatri, Tanisha, Arjun, Dhruv and others we have medal contenders in each of the 3 doubles categories by 2028.

[Sin Hombre]

I was thinking the same and doing some research earlier in the week, good article.

Dhruv has been kept on the sidelines a bit by MR Arjun getting injured constantly. Maybe a switch to XD with Tanisha might be our next top-10 pair.

I like that we are experimenting more with pairs to find the right combination. If Treesa/Gayatri keep struggling to make the next level breakthrough, we should have one of them pair up with Tanisha.

[pancakesdonuts]

Lakshya Sen is now 17th in Road to Paris ranking just one spot below qualification mark. He had a good unbeaten run in BATC where he won all 3 games without dropping a set against WR 20, 35 and 83. The gap between him and 16th ranked Ng Tze Yong (MAS) is around 4k points. He justs need 2 good tournament run in Europe.