© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Following his 21-3, 21-8 win over Haryana’s Ankush, in the boys U19 singles qualification first round at the Yonex Sunrise 30th Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Prize Money tournament at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex here in Panchkula, 16-year-old Sai Shreyas Pallerla of Telangana was cheered by his mother. With his father Satyam working in DBS Bank, Singapore, Pallerla had grown up in Singapore and spent 11 years in the country before returning to India to pursue his love for badminton.
“My grandfather Venkateshwar used to play badminton, and whenever we would talk over phone from Singapore, he would always tell me to watch badminton matches over TV and discuss things about the sport. In 2019, my father decided to send me, my mother, and sister back to India to start my badminton training in Hyderabad. After every win, I make sure to send the video to my father in Singapore and he cheers me on from there and that’s what he did today too,” says the youngster, who is a student at Delhi Public School in Hyderabad.
While he started training at the MK Badminton Academy under coach Vikas Harsha, the youngster also got trained by Arjuna awardees Sumeet Reddy and Siki Reddy. The youngster initially started as a doubles player before he started competing in singles. The first two years saw him only managing to reach the initial qualification rounds of the U15 and U17 tournaments in the national junior ranking tournaments. Last year, he managed to advance to the last qualification rounds of the U-15 and U-17 national ranking tournaments before bowing out. This year has seen the youngster making it to the main draw for the first time in his career when he reached the main draw of U-17 National Ranking tournament at Vijayawada last week before suffering a three-game loss against Dev Ruparelia.
“My coaches, including Harsha sir and mentor Sumeet sir, always told me to take positives from the qualification rounds. Sometimes, I would start from the round of 256 in qualification and would suffer a loss in the round of 16 or 32 in qualification rounds but I made sure to learn something from the losses. When I made it to the main draw after five wins last week at Vijayawada, it was a big boost for me even though it would have been a small thing for some. Whether it’s qualification or main draw, every win counts for me,” says the youngster.
Training at Hyderabad, the youngster has got to meet the likes of Kidambi Srikanth a couple of times but has never got a chance to talk with the current world number 23. “One thing which I like in Srikanth sir is the kind of comebacks he makes in tough situations. Whenever I get time, I watch his videos and maybe I will get to ask some tips from him someday,” he says.
