VIDEO: Sankar Muthusamy’s badminton ascent- A European sojourn, money matters and more

After having broken into the top 80 and the first one from Tamil Nadu to enter the top-75, Sankar is riding a crest and is working hard to break into the top-30 as soon as possible so that funding for International tournaments becomes much easier.

Among the top 12 Indian badminton players in the World’s singles top 100, 19-year-old Sankar Muthusamy at World No.71 and ninth in the Indian list, is one of the most promising ones, apart from of course Priyanshu Rajawat.

Not just because he is the reigning World junior championship silver medallist.

It’s because of the efforts he has put in the last nine months since winning silver in the World juniors and the results he has produced thereof.

Sankar became only 2nd Indian male shuttler after Siril Verma to win silver at the BWF Junior World Championships. | Photo Credit: BWF

After having broken into the top 80 and the first one from Tamil Nadu to enter the top-75, Sankar is riding a crest and is working hard to break into the top-30 as soon as possible so that funding for International tournaments becomes much easier.

On the way, he upset Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen, World ranked 35, in the second round of the US Open. These performances helped him rise rapidly in the world rankings.

Moreover, Sankar set up base in Europe for three months while training with the France National team. All these have given his game that extra edge.

“After the World juniors [in October last], I played in Bahrain, Bangladesh and for three I went to Europe circuit and took part in seven tournaments. It was a tough but a very nice experience. In Europe, it was a different kind of experience. The quantity [number of hours in training] is less while quality is more. During training, players play more drives, more powerful shots. They play more of box-to-box games,” said Sankar in an extensive interaction with Sportstar, at the Fireball Badminton Academy where he trains.

Playing in Europe has improved his game, Sankar said. “My game has changed a bit. I have become a bit more offensive. Earlier, I used to play dribbles and lifts. Training under Aram Mahmoud was great. He taught me to play [effective] drives and [steep] smashes. I played for a few days with the France National team that had current World junior No.1 Alex Lanier,” said Sankar.

Staying in Europe was made easy thanks to Sankar [he went along with his dad Subramanian) family’s friend in The Netherlands. “We stayed in our friend’s Aadith’s house for 2.5 months. I had good food. In Europe, generally food will be tough for all. No matter who it is. I got very good Indian food. As a result, I was able to play good matches and have solid training sessions,” he said.

Sankar, who clinched bronze in the St. Denis Reunion Open International Challenge, said his primary goal is to improve his fitness and work harder and smarter in training. “That’s the main goal and focus,” he said.

Coach Aravindan said playing as many as 16 tournaments was a well-thought-out strategy. “It was a mixture of trusting your instincts and process. The thing is the transition from juniors to seniors, you got to play more and more especially at this age. The BWF (International world body) says one has to play 15-20 tournaments a year to up his rankings. And the best top-10 tournaments are taken into consideration for rankings.”

Though Sankar is sponsored by Sports Authority of India, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, Go Sports Foundation, and quite a few others, in a bid to improve his rankings, Sankar had to play in more international tournaments for which he had to dig deep for more sponsors.

Which meant that he had to miss quite a few National-ranking events resulting in him missing out on funding from the system.

Explains Aravindan. “Sometimes, Sankar must choose between national and international events. In India, every National-ranking tournament has its own importance, it becomes a selection tournament. Some tournaments become important to form a core group. Also, funding [for International tournaments] gets released to some players depending on their rankings (based on the number of National tournaments he/she plays]. Most of the time, we have to skip National tournaments in order to focus on International tournaments. That’s the challenge we have to face.”

Sankar with his coach Aravindan Samiappan | Photo Credit: Nigamanth P/Sportstar

According to Aravindan, the amount of tournaments Sankar played was huge given his age and the resultant injuries that could happen when you play more than a dozen tournaments at a stretch .“It is a risk we took. We knew he might get injured. Apart from the regular tournaments, we give entries to certain higher category of events like Super 500, not sure whether he will get in. It depends on the withdrawals of other players,” he said.

Sankar not being part of the National camps, felt Aravindan, has its advantages and disadvantages. “Sankar is not in the camp. He trains alone in Chennai with me. He has to travel alone either with his father or me. Seventy to eight percent of finance is taken care of during tournaments abroad. When another person travels, it adds to the expenses. You can’t expect the government to take care of the expenses.”

Aravindan said going forward they have to find a way to get sponsorship. “Sankar is getting good sponsors. But that is covering only 50 percent of the costs he incurs. We have to work on it. The next 2-3 years are critical. And being slightly detached from the system has helped so far. Only time has to tell,” said the coach.