All posts tagged: Shivani Naik column

Why HS Prannoy thinks India’s Thomas Cup bronze deserves applause, not silence

Why HS Prannoy thinks India’s Thomas Cup bronze deserves applause, not silence

Published by Webster

Cold, cussed, unemotional math data says if India’s Thomas Cup team seeding was 8th, then a semifinal (last 4) finish was them punching above their weight in badminton’s team World Cup. Thailand (with World No 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn), Indonesia (with World No 5 Jonatan Christie), and Japan (with World No 9 Kodai Naraoka) – considered well-rounded powerhouses of international badminton- did not reach the 2026 Thomas Cup semifinals. Chinese Taipei, with two Taiwanese in the Top 10 – Chou Tien Chen at No 6, and Lin Chun-Yi at No 8, did not make the last 4 either – incidentally defeated by India, whose two singles players getting them the win, were ranked No 11 and a fresh entrant to the Top 20 – Ayush Shetty, at No 18. The devil is on social media, the details are on the ranking charts, and the drop-down recent results. “The bronze was not easy to win,” a calm HS Prannoy told a SAI-facilitated interaction, on his return two days ago. “India was seeded 8th, and we were never …

Saina Nehwal: The relentless force who redefined Indian badminton | Badminton News

Saina Nehwal: The relentless force who redefined Indian badminton | Badminton News

Published by Webster

This was before trolling armies grew emboldened enough to throw shade at an Indian athlete, before it became fashionable to casually forget how few genuine champions India actually produced in women’s singles badminton — a precious two. This was when all of India doted on Saina Nehwal, and happily took for granted that Tour titles would keep rolling in. PV Sindhu’s emergence made it easier still to allow Nehwal’s achievements to fade quietly into the archives, without really appreciating how rare it would seem just a decade later — this business of an Indian nailing down Super Series titles. Sindhu ticked a few boxes, went one better on certain parameters like the World Championship title, and Indians found themselves with a ready replacement to cling to. It likely didn’t cross many minds that winning week in, week out and finishing seasons with 10 Tour titles would become a near impossibility. Instead, ambitions would have to be scaled down. Super 500 triumphs would be celebrated just to keep the sport relevant, because Indians were no longer …

The age of Hulks in Indian badminton is here | Badminton News

The age of Hulks in Indian badminton is here | Badminton News

Published by Webster

With injuries capable of thwarting even the most talented strokemakers in men’s singles badminton from achieving meteoric rises into the Top 20s, India will look for power-packed physicality to deliver the goods in 2026. Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat, Kiran George (who’s made finals at Odisha), will continue to let their court-craft and tactical finesse do the talking. Sen can realistically target the All Englands and Asian Games as his game acquires a roundedness that can navigate injury management effectively. But don’t be surprised if those making waves in the next season are the likes ofAyush Shetty, Sathish Karunakaran, Tharun Mannepalli, Sanskar Saraswat and Rounak Chouhan – though the last mentioned from Chhattisgarh has a long way to go. But it is the honed physicality and commitment to play that booming game, like PV Sindhu was once unabashedly known for, that makes these names capable of suddenly popping up and winning unexpectedly. Power has very few ripostes. The unreturnable smash can gloss over deficiencies in other aspects of play, it can spare them those 5 extra …

The chemistry needed to make mixed doubles work for Indian badminton

The chemistry needed to make mixed doubles work for Indian badminton

Published by Webster

Their chemistry lay in not combusting, and ending up hating each other. Doing it their own way – not overtly involved in the other’s life without being indifferent, not really demanding much of the other, without being resentful – Jwala Gutta and V Diju built themselves an excellent working partnership in badminton’s mixed doubles, reaching World No 7 in 2009, and staying in the Top 10 for almost a year. There was no pretence to fondness, though Jwala, as is her personality, would always be protective of Diju and effusive in giving him credit, once taking 80 percent of shuttles, and still calling Diju a star for playing with high temperature. She really meant it too. Diju was always respectful towards Jwala and often called her game better than his own, but back in 2009 he didn’t really bother with chivalry. Once while yapping away gloriously and walking backwards, Jwala got tangled in her own feet, and fell down. Diju didn’t stop laughing. On the badminton court, the barely-coached pairing were crackling good – and …

Listen to Pullela Gopichand: How about roping Indian athletes to take charge of fitness in corporations? | Badminton News

Listen to Pullela Gopichand: How about roping Indian athletes to take charge of fitness in corporations? | Badminton News

Published by Webster

Does every Indian office – in the public sector, or private, need a CFiO – a Chief Fitness Officer for its employees? And is badminton best suited to be the chosen sport that blends recreation and fitness for India’s office population? In a week when India’s national coach Pullela Gopichand went fairly bonkers giving middle class athletes a dose of realism, asking them to keep academics as back-up, if you wanted to secure a better lifestyle than your mother or father did, the former All England champion, was the first to spell out the nuance: he was extremely passionate, militant even, about universal physical literacy for Indians. He prized the health benefits of sport for a billion, more than the tunnel visioned goal of churning out a handful of sporting stars, while pursuing the very niche, elite goal of increasing 6 Olympic medals to 60. Gopichand has been mulling over these ideas since 2017, stewing almost in the helplessness of bringing about this large-scale change. How athletes at the bottom of the pyramid get treated …

How Badminton has been a leader in on-court coaching and why it’s exciting for watching experience | Badminton News

How Badminton has been a leader in on-court coaching and why it’s exciting for watching experience | Badminton News

Published by Webster

After plenty of drama in which Serena Williams was even docked a point for what was dubbed as receiving on–court instructions, tennis effected a remarkable volte face on players getting coached on the court. But the always-enterprising Australian Open, couldn’t really have let the opportunity to have Andy Murray sit out with his usual poker-face in the box for Novak Djokovic. In what has been a refreshing addition, the year’s first Grand Slam welcomed fragments of on-court coaching, though not quite mic’d up. Badminton, far tinier and literally more scrunched in court space, that’s been playing out in the vicinity in Indonesia, will let out a quiet chuckle. Though not quite inevitable, reactive coaching, and improvised interventions, can only add to the drama and watching-experience of an individual sport. The arguments against allowing coaching on court, are pretty straightforward. Players ought to think for themselves and pit their brains in one-on-one battles against each other. Why should they be spoon-fed tactic tweaks? Then there is the perennial time-crunching battle that all sports are forever engaged …

Badminton’s big retirements: Melancholy, unfamiliarity, and several other withdrawal symptoms as legends step aside | Badminton News

Badminton’s big retirements: Melancholy, unfamiliarity, and several other withdrawal symptoms as legends step aside | Badminton News

Published by Webster

“Tai Tzu-ying, I didn’t have breakfast or lunch just to see you play,” a fan shouted in September, as the magician of a player, turned out at her home Taiwan Open, for one last time. Tzu-ying smiled mid-game, but didn’t reply, for badminton is bashful like that. So she would wait for the end of the match to note that she had heard that voice of the invisible fan before in different galleries that are never lit up, and was grateful for the unfailing, unintrusive support even as her career faded out from the centrestage. Injuries were making her tiptoe around magic, and she wanted to chill now, travel to every corner of Taiwan, and have three children. She had entered her home Super Series with a shaky ankle just so fans could see her play one last time. And the sport has several such connoisseurs who added to the chorus of applause but didn’t chase selfies for Instagram. Tzu-ying’s reverse drops, imprinted on memory, were enough. So in its own quiet way, badminton is …

Lakshya Sen needs to know his defense isn’t just dazzling, but dependable too | Badminton News

Lakshya Sen needs to know his defense isn’t just dazzling, but dependable too | Badminton News

Published by Webster

Lakshya Sen’s sensational defense can drop jaws and create crowd highlight packages, a little like Rishabh Pant’s one-handed sixes. But at the China Masters this week, Anders Antonsen slapped a 21-18, 21-15 victory onto Sen in quarters – though early in the match, Sen pulled off his behind-the-back dazzling defense for a winner. But it was yet another example of the Indian, giving up when things got tough. Sen is gutsy, but not gritty enough. He can dazzle with his unique talent – his many eye-popping shots, the quick reactions, the slowly-developing kill smash, but he’s not determined enough to fight the boring attritional battles. Antonsen looks constantly restless to the casual watcher, but his resilient game is reliable. But what brought Sen down were old refrains. Almost broken record reels. A 5-point lapse of concentration, taking the foot off the pedal from 13-11 to 13-16, which remains a mystery in his game. The grief-giving sort of mystery, not an enchanting one. 11-8 up, Sen was comfortably catching the Dane on his far forehand with …

Para badminton: Palak Kohli was told ‘career khatm’ after bone tumour diagnosis, but her ‘comeback louder than setback’ | Badminton News

Published by Webster

The straight-up pragmatism when a boring school teacher asked Palak Kohli to focus on studies and grab a quota available for the disabled, instead of lingering in the playgrounds, had not deterred the para-shuttler when young. She went on to compete at the Tokyo Paralympics. But pity-soaked whispers of “Palak ka career khatm” (career’s over), after a bone tumour was diagnosed two years ago and she was restricted to a wheelchair, really led to a spiral. The diminutive Jallandhar dynamite could snort off casual condescension about her forearm impediment since age 1 when she expressed a desire to play sport. But the dripping sympathy and being judged as ‘finished’ properly brought out the angry-young-woman energy in her. She’s never understood why people are always in a hurry to draw curtains on others’ sporting careers. “Only an athlete knows the cost of their passion,” she says simply, shushing the ignorants rushing to snip short an athlete’s painstakingly built career. Recently, Palak confirmed her second successive Paralympic qualification for Paris. It came just months after she won …

Savour the retiring Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchanok Intanon, Badminton’s Federers | Badminton News

Published by Parlour News

Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchanok Intanon will compete in their fourth Olympics at Paris. But it is to their infinite and enduring credit that two of the most elegant and exciting shuttlers of the last decade, have made badminton in intervening years between the Games, enchanting. The big medals might have moved from one boxed and structured game of Carolina Marin to Chen Yufei to perhaps Paris favourite An Se Young next. But for pulling in badminton watchers week after week, season after season and elevating women’s singles to breathless tear-streaking gleeful art, you needn’t look beyond TTY and Ratchanok. India’s former international Aparna Popat reckons this is a summer to savour the last of their brilliance, and be silently grateful for having witnessed them in action. This will be as big a set of retirements as Roger Federer’s, and Federer was indeed the TTY and Ratchanok of tennis – in how they get imprinted on the mind, not just the names engraved on trophies. That badminton had two artists, zephyrs on a hot sticky …