Sanskar Saraswat keen on winning both singles and doubles titles at Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial

“My father Raj Saraswat too played both singles as well as doubles but one of his memories was seeing Lee Chong Wei playing in the Asian Satellite Tournament in Jaipur in 2003, where he too played. My father would always tell me that Chong Wei focussed on one format and look where he reached. But then I am still young and enjoy playing both singles and doubles. To win both the titles here is my aim and hopefully I can achieve that,” said the youngster while speaking with The Indian Express.

A seven-year-old Sanskar was initiated into badminton by his father at Jodhpur, where Saraswat Sr has opened the Drona Sports Academy. Within five years of starting badminton, the youngster would become the U13 nationals doubles winner along with Tushar Suveer in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh before winning the nationals U15 doubles title with Bhuvan Singh at Bhubaneswar in 2019.

A couple of finals as well as semi-final finishes in All India Ranking in singles categories in the last two years apart from the doubles title with Mayank Rana last year in Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial has seen the Rajasthan player climbing the U19 rankings.

“The attacking drives game in singles as well as doubles have always fascinated me. While I train for singles’ only, I have been visualizing doubles scenarios in my mind in my free time. It’s all about the timing as well as understanding with one’s partner in doubles and luckily, I have been able to utilise my singles’ strengths of net game as well as back court game to my advantage in doubles,” says Saraswat.

The lanky lad has been training under Malaysian coach Sankar Annamalai at the National Centre of Excellence at Guwahati since the last eight months. Even though he along with Arsh Mohammad reached the final in the Asian Junior Championships in 2022, the Rajasthan player has not still made up his mind about competing in doubles only.

“Sankar sir’s focus has been on my fitness as well as the attacking drive as well as smashes in singles. But then the amount of training we do for singles, helps me in doubles too where it’s a much faster game and the drives also help. Singles are also all about patience and right now, I am being patient in making the choice. I have one more year in juniors before I decide whether I will choose only singles or doubles,” signs off Saraswat.