Sudirman Cup: ‘Anna, am nervous' Anupama Upadhyaya and Sathish Karunakaran overcome panic to win on their India international debuts

Indian Express

01-05-2025

Stepping out of PV Sindhu's 5-foot-11 shadow can be very daunting. She might not have won any matches at the Sudirman Cup, but India's singles coach Rahul Yadav, guided along two youngsters, who went from boggle eyed respect for Sindhu to absolute quaking fear to seeking inspiration from India's tallest shuttle figure, who cheered from the sidelines. This, they did by winning on their India international debuts.
First Anupama Upadhyaya walked upto Rahul and told him in the gym on the morning of the tie, that she was wracked by nerves and would be wretched if she couldn't win, while replacing Sindhu for the women's singles. Later, Sathish Karunakaran was 7-11 down against Harry Huang, who was nailing all the eyeball confrontations at the net, when he stumped the coach with the words 'little panic'. Rahul was expecting something on those lines, but not, his main lead, men's singles player to flat out admit: 'Anna, I'm very nervous.'
It all worked out well as India clinched the tie 3-2, thanks to the two singles. But it was an edgy day and a thrilling set of matches that kept the neutral Chinese crowds at Xiamen riveted to an utterly peripheral tie, solely due to India's young brigade and their mad outing on the court.
For perhaps the first time ever, Indian badminton fielded a team in all five events – two singles and three doubles of the Sudirman Cup – who were all born in or after 2000.
A good 19 years after Saina Nehwal was thrown into the deep end against a then Top 10 Tracey Hallam at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, India took a bold step to deploy those 25 years or less. Like that day in Melbourne, India finished on the winning side against England.
It was only England, no great shakes at badminton. The result was inconsequential – with India having lost to Denmark and Indonesia, similarly 4-1 and out of quarters contention. And this is no definitive revival – Indian badminton is really quite smack in the middle of serious doldrums. But at least, the singles personnel, Anupama Upadhyaya (World No 44) and Sathish Karunakaran (World No 48) got moving, and finally pulled the tie 3-2, towards India.
Tanisha Crasto, who has been diving around the court all three days and bringing decibel energy to a beleaguered squad, continued with a 21-17, 21-17 win alongside Shruti Mishra over Lizzie Tollman and Estelle van Leeuwen, to seal the tie in the first three matches.
Miu Lin Ngan, England's women's singles entry has no ranking worth speaking off – it's 1107 – but Anupama was completely melting with dread since morning, knowing she was to debut, replacing Sindhu till she won 21-12, 21-16. The Indian, a former national champion at 17, and now 20, took the first 5 points, then couldn't believe she was off to a start, and lost the next 5.
Anupama is a rally player, a strictly steady player, mild mannered, soft spoken and with not even a pretension to a power-smash, let alone compare with Sindhu's thunder attack of yore. Her first outright winner came at 12-10 in the second set, such is her reliance on staying in the rally, and tease out mistakes from opponents. But Rahul says the past two months have been largely about coach Pullela Gopichand teaching her to yell and show aggression while keeping calm.
'We have to push her to scream and Gopi bhaiyya has told her several times, that if she doesn't she's done for the day and will be punished (mostly extra running),' he says. 'She'll say 'OK, ya, ya, ya and forget,' he says.
Against Ngan, Anupama literally got blinded by the spotlight. 'The first few points she told me the lights were coming into her eyes, so she was hitting blindly,' he recalls. Her lateral and diagonal footwork were all tentative to the point it seemed rooted and reluctant. But she persisted in keeping shuttle in play, and got Ngan to err – mostly hit wide.
'I told her to start enjoying playing and points would automatically follow. We of course need to work on smashes because you only win points on attack. She has to hit, hit, hit!' he said. The second set got tricky at 14-14. But it strangely brought out the aggression in Anupama, and the last few points had her charge the net and dominate the rally with attacking pushes.
The biggest win of the day however belonged to Sathish Karunakaran – his opponent wasn't particularly terrifying, at World No 95, with a decent smash hit and creditable net game. But Sathish's own jangled nerves was proving to be the real battle. On the first rally, he smashed way wide to an open court. He served into the net at 18-20 to lose the first set. The National Games champion took awfully long to simply get composed.
Huang didn't know what hit him in the decider, such was the transformation once he got his big attack going, but the radar was all askew as the shuttler, who also plays mixed doubles (he's Top 50), adjusted his range to the narrower singles court.
One good thing that mixed doubles has taught Sathish besides the drive-smash routine is defense – it's impeccable and a real asset in singles. Huang got many smashes whizzing past on his flanks, but the body defense was unyielding. It strengthens his attack – which isn't shabby by any measure in his 18-21, 22-20, 21-13 win.
Sathish was a match point down – going from 15-15 to 19-20, before he pulled himself out of trouble. Perhaps owing to this being his first big event for India, he was dabbling at one half smash after another, not trusting his big hit. Moreover, Huang, who has a pretty good drive game, was countering and wouldn't allow Sathish to hulk out, as he was imbalanced more often than not.
Not all attacks need start as wading in all-guns blazing, and Sathish first found a way to push Huang back from the net where he was strong. Rahul kept yelling for him to open up the (back) court. 'First team event. He was confused, nervous and losing points continuously and not understanding the situation. I told him to enjoy his attack, and go cross on the forehand,' Rahul recalls. Once the backhand smash got whipping, Huang was decimated in the third.
Lakshya Sen, felled by shoulder issues, and Prannoy, still hitting the top groove were rested, as Sathish was handed the opportunity. Later playing mixed doubles with Tanisha Crasto, the duo kept the Chinese crowds entertained in a 62-minute 11-21, 21-13, 24-22 thriller – albeit a loss for Indians. First Sathish, then Tanisha served into the net – on match points – a result of tiredness.
Both youngsters playing their second match of the day learnt that beyond butterflies and nerves in international badminton, is the bone-crushing world of exhaustion, that decides fates of matches. Energy is better spent on the endgame than on settling nerves at the outset.