Boria Majumdar in Paris
Lakshya Sen is the only Indian player left in the badminton. Harsh, but true. And he will be up against Chou Tien-chen today in what promises to be an exciting quarterfinal. With Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty losing out and with PV Sindhu failing to go past He Bingjiao, he is the only hope left for India in the sport. Speaking to Boria Majumdar, RevSportz editor-in-chief, Prakash Padukone exuded confidence about Lakshya, and said while he wasn’t promising a medal, Lakshya was indeed playing well and doing exactly what he needed to do. Extracts from the conversation:
Boria: Your thoughts on Lakshya Sen as he has exceeded expectations somewhat? The whole country is already celebrating his effort, but he has a huge match today. There is a chance and it should be a good game.
Prakash Padukone: Like I said, there have been a lot of upsets already in the tournament. Both the Indonesian singles players are out – Anthony Ginting and Jonatan Christie. They were in the All-England finals. So now, they have not even qualified for the pre-quarter finals. Even in the women’s singles, there have been upsets. The Olympics is all about handling pressure, being at your best. So, it does not matter, like I always keep saying, what you have done in the past or what you do in the future. It is important to remain focussed and try to reach the peak this particular week. I think Lakshya is on the right track.
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Boria: Are you satisfied with what you have seen of Lakshya so far? He has played really well.
Padukone: Yes, absolutely. Now, if you watch the match versus Prannoy – I am not looking at the scores, but if you go through the match – there are hardly any mistakes compared to his earlier few matches. So, that is what I was very impressed with. Very focussed, no mistakes at all. That is what I was looking for, and he won convincingly. He did not let the drift, whether it was playing with the wind or against the wind, impact him. He did not let it bother him at all.
There was a French player playing on the other court, a lot of distraction happens as a result. But we had told him just to remain focussed and try to finish it in two games. And I think he has done it in style. But that doesn’t mean I would be satisfied and I would go on to predict that just because he has played well, he will get a medal. All I will say is he is definitely a contender. Sindhu too was a contender even if she may have lost.
Boria: Satwik-Chirag was disappointing, but it happens in sport. After winning the first game, it hurts more.
Padukone: Yeah, it was unfortunate. They have been in good form. I wish they had lost in some of the earlier tournaments and done well here. It is also sometimes a challenge to be the favourite. A lot of the Indian fans, especially in the Olympics, create a lot of pressure and hype.
I think in most sports, most of our medals have come from people whom you are not expecting anything from. Because they go and play freely, whether it is shooting, whether it is boxing, whether it is wrestling, whether it is badminton.
So when there is no expectation, just go and play freely. People whom you are expecting [medals from], there is a lot of hype. It is not easy for them to put up with the pressure. So sometimes, I think that is where they have probably lost out. But it is a part of the game, and hopefully they will come back and do well in the next competition.
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