Their mobile phones were taken away so that they wouldn’t be distracted. Every spoken interaction with anyone outside coaches and support team was calibrated. And parents and even neighbours were told to hold their horses, not raise expectations or pressure, when talking to the press. Ever since that day when Tanvi Sharma had to settle for a bronze at the Asian Junior Championships, missing out on the final, after she wasn’t in the best frame of minds during that loss – her every step towards World Junior Championships was carefully curated.
The all-court game was always in place – the punchy tosses to the back court, the four angles on the cross smash, the ruthlessness on the straight one, and the aggressive stomp to the net. But the mind needed to buy into the idea that she could beat the Chinese. On Saturday at Guwahati, Tanvi became the first Indian woman since Saina Nehwal to reach the finals of the World Junior Championships, with a resounding 15-11, 15-9 thrashing on Chinese Liu Si Ya, avenging her Asian loss that had drawn out ire from her team.
Coach Park Tae-sang was considerably more calm on Saturday than when Tanvi had allowed pressure to get to her against Japanese Saki Matsumoto and gotten dragged into a decider after leading 10-6. She carried the same zoned stubbornness into the semis against the Chinese, the only one left in contention.
History is harder to repeat in Indian sport, and the world junior title in badminton that started it all for Nehwal -two years before her CWG and one year before Super Series title – has been tough for any Indian to nail, female or male. So Tanvi is up against the odds against the Ratchanok Intanon-gamesake from Thailand in the finals.
But against the Chinese, it was sweet retribution for the denied Asian crown. Tanvi didn’t start intimidatingly but gained an aura as she went on. Her ability to smash deep and cleverness in using the same action to play the potshot front court drops, had the Chinese befuddled completely.
Si Ya’s lunge was severely tested. To the extent that she dreaded the front court eyeball confrontations. Tanvi isn’t very sharp on dribbles – it comes with time. But otherwise she has Saina Nehwal’s ability to cover the court and dictate rallies from the back. She strikes deep, with raw shoulder power that is visible, mixes the half smashes and drops, but has a sting of the full blooded smash that took her to finals of US Open. By 11-7 in the opener, Tanvi was using the drops as decoys for the back court attack.
She has some of the smoothest hitting swings and draws parabolas with that, and compulsively imparts angles on her strokes to the back. Combine that with forehand drives from doubles game developed with sister Radhika and mother Meena, and the drops become weapons to tease, taunt and torment opponents. The Thai is equally good, so finals should be a treat. But they helped Tanvi take the opener 15-11.
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What really helped her rocket off on the second set, was how she nailed the corners – sending the shuttle with Jojo Christie-accuracy. She can spray smashes, but Tanvi doesn’t go for the lines or put the corner area in sights because she fears long rallies and opponents defense. She nails the corners, because she can. The skill is quite breathtaking.
So she quickly moved to 5-2 in the second, and by then it was an all-court attacking display. She made the Chinese twist and turn and kept her guessing using pace, power and placement with something of a remote to adjust the nuanced kills. A lot of the time the Chinese was erring and crumbling under pressure, but 75% of Tanvi’s 30 points came from winners. This wasn’t attrition. Her defense was barely tested. She was on the attack from the word go.
The drives and flicks to backhand corners took her to 11-4 and it was only errors when she tried to play away from the net but attempting to reach it that a clump of errors happened to make it 12-7. But it’s here that the Hoshiarpur woman brought out her smashes, just like Saina used to, to assert herself in women’s badminton where games are bashful about power, and in the end she would be stomping about with the down hits cannoning forth.
Tanvi Sharma is in the finals of World Juniors. And India that made history with first mixed team bronze, might regain the women’s singles aura that’s fading off with Sindhu. The exciting news – Tanvi isn’t the only one in the wings, there’s Unnati Hooda, Anmol Kharb, Rakshitha Ramraj too. They aren’t quite going to wait in the wings in seniors. But on Sunday, there’s a Thai to be downed before Tanvi proceeds to the real big world.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
