Macau Open Badminton: Leaner, meaner, and stronger, Tharun Mannepalli knocks out top seed

“This is big for Tharun to beat somebody like a Lee Cheuk Yiu, who’s top 15 in the world, a tricky player who can actually trouble anybody in the world, he has been in the circuit for a long time. For Tarun to beat a player like him, who has been playing well, I think that’s a very big positive and I felt Tarun needed this kind of a breakthrough. And thankfully, it happened soon,” former India player Guru Sai Dutt, who was on coaching duties for the match along with Rahul Yadav, told The Indian Express from Macau.

Starting off as an 8-year-old in Khammam, Tharun moved to Hyderabad to pursue badminton along with studies after Class X. He enrolled at the Pullela Gopichand Academy about four years back. “This is my biggest win,” Tharun said, adding with a chuckle. “And 23 is not late, I think. I was on the circuit for a while, but I didn’t always have sponsors to participate internationally. But over the last year and a half, things have changed. Guru bhai, (Parupalli) Kashyap bhai have helped me a lot with coaching and Gopi bhai helped me to get OGQ sponsorship. I started playing internationally more, and results started coming. I started playing senior-level events (internationally) only after I came out of the U19 age group. That was one of the issues; it’s taken me a while.”

Guru went on to explain the work Tharun had to put in to finally start seeing the results. “For the body type and the strokes that he has, he was a little limited. He’s not a very naturally strokey player, you know. He’s a bit heavy-set. So, he had to work a lot on his body… to cut down his weight, to improve his agility to cover the court better, and be freer with his movement. He worked a lot on this along with his trainers and us coaches. He has been very consistent in training actually, over the last two years, putting in a lot of work. That’s why it has taken him a while.”

Guru also said his shot-making has improved significantly even within the last few tournaments he has played. Before, he was dependent largely on the physical aspect of the game, waiting for errors from his opponents rather than making openings himself.

As he opened up a 7-1 lead in the opening game against Lee, Tharun was letting Lee know about the easy power he possessed in his smashes and lifts, getting good distance on defence and a steep downward trajectory on his attempted winners. Lee, a technically sound shuttler, did start to figure out the angles soon and began to close the gap down with his change of pace, closing down to 9-9. Lee, a two-time runner-up over the last couple of years at India Open, started taking charge at the net while Tharun started spraying the shuttles wide on either flank. The Indian saved a handful of game points but Lee’s lead was eventually good enough to give him the opener.

Having switched over the better side, Tharun opened up a 11-5 lead in Game 2 and this time around he ensured he didn’t Lee force his way back. In the decider, Tharun needed not to concede too much ground in the first half, and the Indian not just managed to stay in touch but even inch ahead of Lee at 9-8 with another one of those effortless-looking crosscourt smashes that his opponent was too late to react to. Another big smash after the change of ends gave him a 14-10 lead. The match was still not over; a stunning full-length forward dive and retrieve was not quite enough to win Tharun the point, helping Lee close the gap to 17-18. Another sideways diving get wasn’t enough as it soon became 19-19, but even in those moments, the Indian kept a level head.

Guru stressed that these one-off wins are good but not the end goal. But added: “Gopi sir has been putting in a lot of effort to make him more flexible and make the movements easier. Kashyap was constantly at him to make him physically fit. We have tried to make him understand what his strengths are, what he can achieve. And he is showing us the progress now. He is constantly showing us results step-by-step.”