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Aparna hopeful of better showing

Rakesh Sharma

India's badminton prima donna Aparna Popat was quickly into her exercise regimen on reaching Delhi's Indira Gandhi indoor stadium, after a touch of viral infection had kept her back in Bangalore while the Indian women's team for the Uber Cup shifted their training from Bangalore to the capital early last week.

Rediff.com spoke to the national champion immediately after her work-out, and began by reminding her that the last time India played the Uber Cup qualifiers, she was the only Indian to win her match in a 1-4 scoreline against Malaysia.

Was there a possibility of that being repeated in the ongoing Asian leg of the Thomas/Uber Cup?

"Things should be better this time as a lot of the players have been playing abroad regularly. So, hopefully, we shall have many more wins this time," she said.

India's No 1 women's singles player was of the opinion that the gap between her and the other Indian players, which earlier was rather wide, has been narrowed due to the increased international exposure the players have received of late.

"I was was very fit earlier but now most of the top Indian women players have attained a high level of fitness. Also, once you reach a certain level, it becomes difficult to stay there because everyone is targetting you as the sole enemy. So it is always easier to play someone above you than under pressure. That, I think, makes a difference," she said.

On being told that badminton critics aver that she does not use the smash as often as she should, she conceded that there could be some substance to that opinion as even her coaches told her the same. But, she added, "I am trying to cultivate that into my game; I do use the smash in practice, but I still have to utilise it more often during matches."

Aparna's style of play though is a reflection of her personality. As she puts it deftly: "I am the kind of person who'd rather create openings, get a safe shot in and then go for the kill rather than just ram the shuttle really hard."

The Commonwealth Games of 1998 was a high water-mark in Aparna's career, as she led India's to its first women's medal - a bronze - in team badminton at the Kaula Lumpur tournament. Though India is yet to make it to the final rounds of the Uber Cup world team championship for women, Aparna is hopeful of doing well this time around as she is playing on home turf.

'The home crowd, familiar people, familiar surroundings will make our task easier," she says.

Supporting Aprana in India's bid to find a berth for the final round at Kaula Lumpur this May will be upcoming teammates B R Meenakshi, G Jwala and Shruti Kurien and the more experienced P V V Lakshmi, Manjusha Kanwar, Archana Deodhar, Madhumita Bhist and Neelima Chaudhry.

While both Prakash Padukone and chief coach Mohd. Arif feel that India's men's team stands a very good chance of qualifying for the finals at Kuala Lumpur, given the good performance of Indian men's shuttlers in tournaments abroad in the past year, the women's squad just may surprise the pundits and public on what is considered as a very slim chance of their making it to the Uber Cup finals this May.