Andhra shuttler hopes to step-up the tempo

One still wonders where it comes from: all that fury on the court,the hunger and singularity of purpose. It is not as if he has some hole to fill. He just likes to play badminton the way great players do. Playing with precision and a sense of determination,Sumit Reddy made his way into the semi-finals of the recently concluded Fajr International Badminton Tournament held in Tehran,Iran from February 5 to 8 in which 16 countries were participating. “I could have won the semi-final match but it was just not my day. The game was balanced at 19-all in the first set but Mohammad Dareeza of Iran picked up and won by 21-19. After winning the second set by 17-21,I was hopeful of winning the final set also. Despite leading by 15-11,I ended up losing by 21-16. It was an evenly contested game but he had caught me in the back area and that put me on the disadvantage,” recalls Sumit Reddy,the top ranked junior player in India. However,things could have been different had he played with senior players during the 15-day long camp in Iran. “I never got a chance to play with the seniors during the camp and therefore,I never thought I would be able to do well in the tournament. I had not idea about the level at which the seniors play and how tough it is to play at senior circuit but I had a good draw as I was in the top seeds half (grade),” adds the 18-year-old who had earlier participated in sub-junior and junior Asian Badminton Championship.

Nurturing dreams of picking up a racquet,the then 10-year-old Sumit went against his father’s wishes to pick up a bat and decided to follow his dreams instead. “My father,an athletic coach,wanted me to get into cricket but I was not interested at all. Then he put up the option of picking up lawn tennis but I wanted to become like Gopi Chand after I saw him win the All England Championship in 2001,” shares the Andhra Pradesh player.

After learning the basics of the game from coach Govardhan at Sports Authority,Andhra Pradesh for four years,he finally decided to train under his idol,Gopi Chand and the result began to show when he won three out of the five All India Ranking Championships that he participated in last year. “2008 was a good year for me. You can say that my career got a boost after I won those three titles. Before that,I had reached one finals in 2007,” says an exulted Sumit.

His aim to continue the winning momentum suffered a blow when he lost to Nanda Gopal in the finals of the All India Junior Badminton Championship at Guntur. Undeterred,he is trying to prove a point in the forthcoming 26th International Junior Badminton Championship to be held in Germany and the Dutch Junior International. “Guru Sai Dutt had won the singles title in the Dutch Junior International last year. This would inspire us to go for the best,” says the player who is studying in Class 12 at International Junior College.