World Badminton Championship in Hyderabad

We saw the last 3 days of action at the recently concluded WBF Championships in Hyderabad at Gachibowli stadium. This is the 2nd International sports event Hyderabad has held in the last 2 years; the previous one was the World Military Games in 2007.

We got full tournament passes in the middle of the week for Rs. 2000 a pop after muddling through poor information on where to get tickets.

Sadly, Saina Nehwal, the lone Indian hope lost in the quarterfinals. You may recall she won a major tournament (Indonesian Open) recently, beating World No. 2 Lin Wang of China. Saina, unlike her almost name-sake Sania Mirza (also from Hyderabad), has broken into the Top 10 in her sport. I don't know what they put the water in Hyderabad (or is it that they have water, period) that they keep producing these athletes in ahem a steady stream (steady, I mean by Indian standards).

Anyway, Saina lost to the same Lin Wang this time around. This is the first time I am seeing world-class badminton live and it was quite thrilling. It was good to see that courts are not actually painted in fluorescent green as they appear on DD Sports. You hear the thwack of racquet meeting shuttle and feel the speed and reflexes of the players as they glide, skip and dive across the court. The frenetic pace of men's doubles with feroicous exchanges was a treat. The Chinese may lack the fluid grace of Morten Frost or our own Prakash Padukhone (who I remember watching as a kid in the early 80's). But they dart across the court with a speed that defies belief and leap for their smashes to Jordanesque heights. They also find a way to return almost anything thrown at them.

Saina herself I thought played with a maturity beyond her 20 years; she led the 2nd game 10-2 before succumbing to an overall superior player at this point in time. Was the Indonesian Open a flash in the pan? Time will tell, though I think she has the game and needs to cut down on unforced errors (to say zero which is what I see from the Chinese). Go Saina!

On the final day, there was only one non-Chinese - mixed doubles from Denmark - win. It was weird to see Indian Jawans ceremonially carry the Chinese flag time and again as the winners were medalled.

Security arrangements and the overall conduct of the tournament seemed smooth (it was annoying to see the Brits pull out because of security fears) and it was gratifying to see us pull off an international event in the middle of security and swine flu concerns.

- Balaji R.