From a badminton backwater comes emerging talent Sanskar, who won Guwahati Masters Super 100 title

Sankar Saraswat in action. (FILE photo)

The supposition that ‘Everyone plays badminton in India’ and hence the sheer numbers will yield dividends, was a warm, reassuring thought; except it didn’t quite throw up incredible numbers of elite shuttlers, like in China. But Sanskar Saraswat of Jodhpur, a city hitherto unknown for producing top shuttlers, supports the hunch, after a merry turn of events. The 19-year-old, standing at 6-ft-2, won the Guwahati Super 100 last month, at a venue where he trains at the National Centre.

His father Raj Saraswat was a cricketer who took a shine for badminton after watching his friends post Class 12 at the Old Bijlighar cement court. “I learnt everything about badminton on that cement floor, and lost both my knees,” he laughs, recalling how he progressed fast through University and North Zone ranks between 1995 and 2008, after which he went to NIS for coaching certification.

Sanskar remembers an atmosphere akin to how Tai Tzu-ying learnt her early strokes, alongside her father and his friends. “In my case,” Sanskar says, “my father and extended family would play badminton for hours.” Intricacies of strokes discussed in a stress-free, but sports-loving atmosphere stuck on since age 7, even as his father wrapped up an active career as many time state champion.

His grandfather had been a boxer, and while Rajasthan packed off its tall men (especially from Sikar), to play basketball and volleyball for Services and Railways, Raj, who had one of the best backhands on the domestic circuit, was determined to kickstart a badminton trend in the state. “Any game was encouraged in the house since my father was a boxer. But we had no facilities back in the day. We would lose in the first round, and watch matches the remaining 4 days. Vikram Singh was state champ, and without internet whatever we learnt was from watching seniors play. This one year, we went to a Jaipur satellite tournament and Lee Chong Wei who was playing for the first time, became an immediate favourite,” he says.

After Sanskar got serious about the sport, Raj took to coaching full time, as the mother took on responsibilities of running the house with her medical officer job. But the youngster had no inkling that Rajasthan wasn’t a shuttle hub, given how invested his father would be in filling up his hours with perfecting strokes. “My strokes just got very sharp because of my father’s attention to technique and knowledge of badminton related-fitness. I would repeat strokes 500-600 times from the same corner,” Sanskar recalls.

His game style is extremely aggressive, though playing at higher levels was a sobering experience, tempering his attacking intent. “At the international level, 70-80 % of the time, rallies get longer. So I had to learn to play long rallies. But I know how to create my shuttle (build towards a kill),” he says.

At Guwahati, Sanskar beat former national champion Mithun Manjunath, a tricky opponent, but he displayed a fine ability to control rallies from the net and disperse shuttles with variety to displace the senior. “I was a little worried because I hadn’t won any medal the whole year. But I trained well for 3 weeks, without a single off,” he says.

Amongst his crispiest strokes is the forehand cross slice, but Sanskar has been reaching across for a round-the-head smash, and nailing the lines pretty effectively recently. His tall frame offers him the leeway of playing it unbalanced even if he can’t reach. Having idolized Lin Dan since young, his attack is quite notable, though the strong basics and punch on strokes learnt at a single court in Jodhpur have stood him in good stead.

Sanskar needs to prop up his defense, and like every shuttler needs to keep an eye on both his knees, plus ankle and back, rehab for which brings him to Mumbai’s Reliance facility often. “I think he logs a lot of negatives (errors) and loses points in a bunch. But I don’t want to interfere with his coaching now, he’s doing well. If he can cut on errors and improve defense, he will do well,” the father says. Rajasthan meanwhile has seen a mushrooming of many Academies since 2009 when Sanskar started. The physicality might yield results quicker than expected, and Sanskar might be the first of many from the region.