Is China's badminton dominance an impediment or an opportunity for Indian players?

Li Xuerui

Powerhouse China

Kudos to Saina Nehwal to have reached the quarterfinals of the Indonesian Open and have played phenomenally well against World No.1 Li Xuerui of China. Although the first set ended in a nerve wracking 22-20 with Li leading, however Saina lost the second set at 15-21. Although being World No.8 and playing versus World No.1, Saina Nehwal, India’s sole Olympic medal winner in the sport played phenomenally well especially after her not upto the mark performances in the Uber Cup in May and Japan Open earlier in June.

Today she played like a fighter against the best and showed real guts not giving up on any shot. In the first set she played some pretty impressive smashes and got the World Champion on her toes. However in the next set, experience came into the fore and Li won an easy game. So coming back to the Chinese in the sport in each and every category, are they an impediment for the rest of the world with their undoubted strong presence and never give up spirit?

The Chinese outperform everyone in singles in every tournament. While Chen Long (World No.2) and Lin Dan rule the men’s category , Women’s section is swept away by the Chinese with Wang Shixian(World No.1), Li Xuerui (World No.2) and Wang Yihan (World No.3). With this kind of dominance on the Badminton World Federation rankings, it s unlikely that other star players will cross them in few years to come especially in the women’s game.

Where does India stand?

India has produced some outstanding players like Prakash Padukone ,Pullela Gopichand(both winners of the prestigious All England Championships), Saina Nehwal( Olympic Bronze Winner), doubles team of Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa(Commonwealth Games Champions).However, we still fall short whenever it comes to World Champions China and also as Team India on the whole. Where do we stand and why so?

Well, accordingly to me, firstly it’s the popularity and the motivation the sport receives from the country in the first place. Our cricket crazy nation has been recently moved away and cared to look beyond cricket primarily due to the boredom from the never ending Indian Premiere League matches that and also due to the achievement in different fields recently. Thanks to the introduction of the Indian Badminton League .

It is just now that players like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Sikki Reddy, Thulasi etc are playing well. Yet no one touches the Chinese. If you closely analyze the Chinese games, you will notice that it is of course not talent in the first place. When big teams/players play at such levels, everyone can be ranked equally on talent. Its ultimately the attitude, the grit . Chinese are undoubtedly an utmost example of the “never give up attitude” and the killer instinct. Also, a lot depends on the coaching methods. The Chinese are so strict about the level of the players that “not being the best is just not an option”.

Our players play undoubtedly well,but the killer instinct is missing. In the recently held prestigious Thomas and Uber Cup women’s quarterfinals, our trump card doubles pair lost without putting up a fight. Their lack of perseverance and nerve was clearly evident.

Being strict helps

Hu Yun was in the Chinese national badminton team, but unfortunately couldn’t perform up to the teams expectations and was dropped from the team. Soon he got a scholarship to study at HK China and continue with his badminton. Since then, he has played extremely well, improved his game immensely and achieved careers highs while playing in their national side against World No.1 Lee Chong Wei, World No.2 and Chinese star Chen Long. He has attained a career high 10th World Rank.

This just shows how tough and uncompromising Chinese are on their nations pride.

Good days ahead?

All said and done, in the ongoing Indonesian semifinals , World No.2 Wang Shixian was defeated by World No.4 Indonesian Ratchanok Intanon. Intanon swept Wang away in a 3 setter match. Wang fought on ,but it was just not enough. Such a loss is a huge blow for their women’s team but this goes on to show that India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal too has her chance. Especially since she has defeated Intanon in more than one occasions previously.

But our other singles players definitely have way too much to improve and our doubles games too has a lot of work required to even reach the level that the Chinese have attained. Also in the men’s Semifinals, World No.2 Chen Long has been defeated. So while China definitely need to bounce back, India has to push themselves further and further. We have so many star players, yet each of them still have to reach their best potential.

Looking forward to the Rio Olympics 2016, we are definitely looking towards that medal and yes, completely on merit and not on the mercy of a Chinese players injury. However the learning here is the patience and mettle that the Chinese carry which is definitely praiseworthy.