Sayali Gokhale: Looking ahead with optimism

She was part of a batch of gifted women’s singles players from Pune, but oddly enough, Sayali Gokhale has never played in her home town as a national champion. It’s been seven years since she last played a tournament in Pune, and she’s looking forward to the Senior Ranking event that begins next week.

“I don’t know why, but I haven’t played in Pune for the last seven years,” says the two-time national champion. “I will be playing the Senior Ranking tournament (July 17 to 21) and I’m looking forward to playing in front of my family and friends.”

Pune has contributed immensely to Indian badminton. In recent times, the contribution was mostly in women’s singles – a clutch of them, including Trupti Murgunde, Sayali Gokhale, Gayatri Vartak, Aditi Mutatkar and Neha Pandit, shifted base to the Padukone Academy and went on to represent India with varying degrees of success. Strangely, though, Pune could not replicate this success in men’s singles.

As a promising junior, Sayali was known as a graceful strokeplayer and fluid mover. She won the first of her two national titles in 2008, and repeated that feat last year. Deckline Leitao, Performance Enhancement Specialist of the Padukone Academy, considers her 2012 success a result of her improve physical abilities.

“Sayali has improved greatly in terms of strength and fitness,” Deckline says. “She now hits a lot harder. When she won her second national title, I felt a sense of personal accomplishment, because it was vindication of the work we’d put in.”

Sayali herself believes her challenges are more mental than physical. “I need to work on the mental front,” she says.

“I have to do a lot to gain confidence. I always knew I had the game; it took time to produce it on court. I’m playing a more aggressive game now – but I need to do more of that.”

The Puneite is currently awaiting word from a German club which had approached her. If it comes through, this would be her second stint with a club in Europe, after she helped Taby Badminton Club reach the semifinals of the elite league in Sweden.

“Sweden has all the facilities required for badminton,” Sayali says. “I was surprised at the number of people who’d come to watch the league matches, the stadiums would be full. But I think Sweden’s short of coaches, and they don’t have senior players. The juniors play every weekend; they have a busy circuit, and they often travel to Denmark and other countries to play.”

“Gamewise, it wasn’t so great. It’s not as intense as it is here. Here (in India), the routine is set, but over there it’s not. Some days you’re training by yourself. In Europe, they play badminton during the winter months, between September and April. Sweden being so cold, everyone rushes indoors during the winter. I’ve never seen so much snow… it was -20 degrees. It was gloomy and would get dark at 2 or 3pm. It was so tough. I was homesick because I’ve never been away from home for so long, but it also gave me confidence.”

The elite league consisted of eight teams, each of which played two matches (home and away). The semifinals and finals consisted of best-of-three matches. Taby helped Sayali play the European circuit, where she did fairly well, reaching the semifinals at Hungary and the quarterfinals at Poland and Austria.

“In the European circuit, the standard is not as high as Asia, but it’s a good platform,” Sayali says. “Physically, now it’s not an issue at all. Ultimately, it’s about results. I’m happy to be training here. I’m waiting to play the next tournament to see what I can do.”