Mumbai: When it comes to celebrating a title on a badminton court, there are a few staples.
There have been players who will sink to the surface, allowing the emotions they worked desperately hard to keep in check finally be free. Some would charge towards their coach’s box. Some break into a dance.
On Thursday night at the Dakar Arena, China’s Zhang Yi Xin for a brief moment, looked shell-shocked. In her moment of triumph, the first thing she did was bend down to scoop up the shuttlecock with her racquet, as if to check once again if the shot had indeed landed out. When she gathered her thoughts, she turned towards her coach before stopping and instead approached the net to greet her opponent, India’s Tanvi Patri.
The festivities were kept on hold for a few minutes. But it was a rather fitting delay given the battle that had just taken place for the gold medal in the women’s singles final at the Youth Olympics in Senegal.
In an hour and 22 minutes of gripping play, Zhang came from behind to win 15-21, 21-13, 26-24. That third game in particular tells only a part of the story of what transpired on court.
Between the two players, nine Championship Points were saved in a match that, at one stage, looked like it would have a rather straightforward deciding game.
Here were two teenagers on the cusp of history in their own idiosyncratic way.
Zhang was the fourth consecutive Chinese player to reach the women’s singles final at the Youth Olympics, but hoped to become the second from her country, after He Bingjiao, to win gold in the event.
As for 15-year-old Patri, she had become the first Indian to reach the women’s singles final. No Indian had ever won a singles gold at the badminton event at the Youth Olympics, with HS Prannoy (2010) and Lakshya Sen (2018) coming close but eventually clinching silver.
After just over half an hour of play on Thursday however, it looked like Patri would be the first to bring home the gold.
Patience was the key to her performance in the opening exchanges, as she played more into the angles, opening up the court before hitting aggressive smashes to try and close out the point. Patri also employed a useful and crucial tactic of pushing the shuttle flatter towards southpaw Zhang’s backhand side, giving the Chinese shuttler little scope to return with accuracy.
That kept the Indian in good stead as Patri took the opening game 21-15 within 25 minutes, and then raced to a 9-5 lead in the second.
Zhang though, would not go away. Less than a month ago, the 17-year-old won the BWF World Junior Championships after losing the opening game in the semi-final and final before coming back to win.
The Chinese player once again stormed back into the match she was trailing in, aided by a tiring Patri losing her accuracy. As the Indian sprayed the shuttle beyond the lines and into the net to hand her opponent a few easy points, Zhang took the second game 21-13.
Zhang then started to turn the screws in the third game. After both players were locked on 6-6, Zhang raced to a 19-10 lead, two points away from the gold medal.
But just as suddenly as Patri had let the momentum shift away from her, she found her rhythm once again. In a miraculous turn of form, Zhang started to lose her patience while Patri kept her cool.
Once again, Patri dictated rallies and looked for openings with calm and clarity. She won the next five points to reduce the gap to 19-15. Then with Zhang on match point, 20-15, Patri once again won five points on the trot to level the scores at 20-20.
From being on the cusp of victory, Zhang then had to save three match points, while Patri saved one more.
At 25-24 though, Patri rushed a smash that went wide of the court to bring a close to a tightly-fought and thoroughly gripping final.
The interesting thing about the final was that it was contested between two players who learned the foundations of the sport while growing up barely 300km away from each other. Patri, who is the reigning Asian U-17 Junior Championship gold medallist, grew up in China where her father worked as an IT professional. She trained in figure skating as well, which helped her develop her balance and footwork on the badminton court.
She is well versed with the way the Chinese prepare for matches, having experienced and trained in those same ways herself. It all made for an enthralling battle on the badminton court.
As the duo met at the net in that endearing moment of mutual respect, it marked the end of a thrilling match. But it also sparked the promise of many more to come from the emerging stars of world badminton.
