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The Indian Shuttler: Anup Sridhar

ANUP SRIDHAR’S inability to keep his nerves in a tight decider has been a constant concern in the past. So much so that his coaches following the match on the net at the Prakash Padukone academy in Bangalore felt that everything was lost once the Indian conceded a tight second game to former champion Taufik Hidayat in the second round of the Proton World Badminton championship in Kuala Lumpur.

But the world number 41 was determined to prove his detractors wrong and came back from the brink with an all out attacking strategy to beat the eight seed Indonesian 21-14, 24-26, 22-20 in one hour and 13 minutes and advance to the third round. The 24-year-old now had to face the winner of the match between 13th seed Mohammad Hafiz B Hashim of Malaysia and Scott Evans of Ireland.

“Yes, I used to choke in the decider and have lost many matches like that. But now I feel the results have started to come and that has done a world of good to my confidence,” said Sridhar, who had lost to the same opponent in the Asian Badminton championship semifinal in two close games.

Earlier, National women’s champion Saina Nehwal celebrated India’s Independence Day with a 21-16, 21-10 thrashing of 13th seed Juliarre Schenk of Germany in just 26 minutes to set up a third round date with fourth seed Hongyong Pi of France.
However, the day definitely belonged to Sridhar who accomplished an enthralling victory, after trailing 18-13 in the decider, over one of the most talented shuttler in the world. This was the third time meeting of the duo and on both earlier occasions, Hidayatl1ad got the better of the Indian.

Anup adopted an attacking approach from the start and made the most of the wind inside the arena to clinch the first game with ease. But after the change of ends, it was the Indians turn to be affected by the wind and though he managed to save six game points he could not avoid the tie from going into the decider.
“At this point, I felt like I was once again losing my focus. But I told myself not to think about the second game and concentrate on individual points,” Sridhar told. The loss in concentration had allowed Hidayat to take a big lead in the decider but the Indian unleashed an array of smashes and was also helped by two net chords to catch the world number 10 at 19-all. He did wasted one match point but kept his nerve to clinch the tie on the second.

The only disappointing result for the Indians .came in the men’s doubles where national champs Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar lost to 14th seeded Indonesian pair of Hendra A Gunawan and Joko Riyadi 21-13, 21-14 in the second round.