Sankar Muthusamy tried everything. He battled hard against a physically stronger opponent, even saved six championship points. But it wasnтАЩt enough as the Chennai shuttler lost in straight games to Chinese TaipeiтАЩs Kuo Kuan Lin in the menтАЩs singles final of the BWF World Junior Championships in Santander, Spain on Sunday.
With the 14-21, 20-22 loss at the Palacio de Deportes de Santander, the 18-year-old had to be content with silver. IndiaтАЩs wait for a second junior world championтАФfirst in menтАЩsтАФcontinued as Sankar became the fourth Indian, and second male player, to finish runner-up at the global event after Aparna Popat (1996), Saina Nehwal (2006) and Siril Verma (2015). Saina is the only Indian to win the junior world title, which she did in 2008.
Sankar may have lost the final, but has raised great hope for Indian badmintonтАЩs future, after a run that is doubly creditable considering that he does not come from the traditional badminton strongholds Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
тАЬThis is quite a creditable achievement. He has been performing well. Even in the senior ranking tournaments, he beat some of the older players. He needs to develop more strength and power but at the moment he is very consistent and can retrieve well,тАЭ U Vimal Kumar, former chief national coach and current selection committee member, said from Bengaluru.
SankarтАЩs game is based on defence, just like Japanese two-time world champion Kento Momota, explains his coach Aravindan Samiappan, who has trained him for the last 12 years at the Fireball Badminton Academy in Mogappair, Chennai. тАЬSankar is a very smart player. He is very tactical. He doesnтАЩt have that strength but compensates for it with a sharp brain, with the variations in the game,тАЭ Samiappan said from Santander.
He uses his subtle variations to stick in there and keep the shuttle in play, frustrating opponents and wearing them down to regularly commit errors, a tactic he used throughout the week to become IndiaтАЩs first finalist in the competition in seven years.
In Kuo though, Sankar faced a tough opponent who used his jump smashes to great effect from the word go. In the first match between the two, the lanky Chinese Taipei shuttler caught Sankar off-guard with his power, attacking game and pace, killing the shuttle everytime it came into his range. Some uncharacteristic errors by the Indian, who wasnтАЩt able to stem the tide, also helped KuoтАЩs cause.
After bulldozing his way past Sankar in the first game, the question was whether Kuo would be able to maintain his level and momentum with his energy-sapping game. Like throughout the tournament, Sankar, the junior world No 4, fought back in the second game by not giving up, just hanging in there and keeping the shuttle in play.
From a near impossible position after trailing 14-20 in the second game, the fourth seed saved six championship points to level the scores at 20-all. But Kuo used his trademark weaponтАФthe jump smashтАФto close out the 48-minute contest by converting his seventh match point.
