No more tomorrow

However, on Sunday, the now, the here and the today mattered more for badminton’s eternal tomorrow-man Parupalli Kashyap, who finally marched to his own tune and claimed a tournament as his own, picking gold at Commonwealth Games.

When on song on court, Kashyap is India’s finest badminton artiste to watch. His furious attritional battle against Derek Wong in the final on Sunday did not seem so ugly with his fluid court movement and wristy strokes. But in what was the ultimate nod to India’s most stylish badminton player, the late Syed Modi, the 27-year-old scored a sensational 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 victory over the Singaporan, Wong, to win India a Commonwealth Games men’s singles gold, 32 years after Modi’s triumph in 1982.

“It’ crazy, it’s great, it was pressure. I’ve been in the Top 20 for 5-6 years and it counts for nothing, even if you’re India No. 1 unless you have a Games gold. They come once in four years. I wanted it bad,” he said, his hunger blazing through every smash he hit to start the first game with a whirlwind and go 1-0 up.

“Then, I felt I’d already done it and wasn’t ready for him to fight back,” he said, recalling the nervous moments against Wong, who was chasing a repeat of his father’s 1983 triumph at the South East Asian Games — the last time Singapore won gold.

Wong had turned on the aggression and was making Kashyap look meek in his returns, which fell limply at the net, as the match swiftly went into a decider. It was against this relentless aggression that Kashyap started constructing points, with both players deploying their entire arsenal of power and deft touch-play.

A typical rally could have drops, tosses, net dribbles, crosscourt parallels and the killer smash, as both showed great reflexes and flexibility in picking shuttles close to the ground. Yet, even as Wong led the scores by dominating the net, Kashyap was attempting to deny him just that – forcing a high lift at the net to set up his own smash.

Once in the bodyline territory of smashing, Kashyap didn’t hold back. “After Olympics, his net-play had deteriorated and he was impatient going for a kill every shot. When we came to Glasgow, I told him to slow things down and he was steady today,” Dewalkar, his childhood buddy, says.

The three friends – Guru also picked bronze – have stuck together through some of the rough phases of their life, including injury and poor form. “He’s had a tough family time, after his sister’s untimely death. He was staying at the academy before Olympics when tragedy struck and he would cry every night. But he’s tough; how he came back,” Dewalkar adds.

Comebacks are the theme of his life and in the match too, Kashyap would turn the Singaporean’s 3-point lead in the third on its head, with smashes he peppered with more authority than before. At 17-15, he even had Gopichand pumping his fists and even though Wong narrowed the gaps twice, Kashyap was trapping him into errors by mixing his game up. Three flick-serves in the end were the trump cards.

It ended with Wong mis-hitting one into the net, as a shirtless Kashyap roared wildly in celebration. “I’d slept well last night. I’m past that stage where I don’t sleep because of a match next day, I’ve lost enough,” he said, adding the thought of not facing No. 1 Lee Chong Wei was treated with equanimity. “I still had tough players to beat in the draw.”

Parupalli Kashyap’s often heard “No chance” said about the likelihood of him beating a top-notch rival — there’s always a Lin Dan or Lee Chong Wei lying in wait ahead of the medal rounds to pounce on his game and finish him off. On Sunday, with Kashyap fancying his chances against Wong in the Commonwealth Games final, there was another round of “No chance” doing the rounds.

This time, it wasn’t a formidable opponent but a debate over the news-space he would be granted even if he won gold. Two Indian officials had been arrested over the weekend for an alleged assault and the shuttler’s chances of upstaging that newsy notoriety weren’t too high. “I was ready for everything and everyone,” said the champion for whom Tomorrow had finally come.​