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The first match of semifinal Saturday in Turin has begun. India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden take on Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos for a place in the final at the season-ending ATP Finals.
Bopanna-Ebden vs Granollers-Zeballos: 2-2
The semifinal started on an even note, with all players holding serve once.
Bopanna-Ebden’s campaign so far:
Bopanna and Ebden have won 3 out of their 2 matches in the group stage so far, making the cut for the semis.
In the group stage, the India-Australian pair had two wins in four matches:
Lost to US Open Champions Rajeev Ram & Joe Salisbury 3-6, 4-6
Beat Australian Open Champions Rinky Hijikata & Jason Kubler 6-4, 6-4
Beat Wimbledon Champions Neal Skupski & Wesley Koolhof 6-4, 7-6 (5)
While it was known for a few months now that PV Sindhu is collaborating with Indian badminton great Prakash Padukone, it was confirmed that she is moving bases from Hyderabad to his academy in Bengaluru today. She shared an article from The Indian Express confirming the same, adding that Padukone reached out to her and is playing the role of her mentor. Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim is her official travelling coach.
What does the move entail?
While Sindhu has not been training with national coach P Gopichand since the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics, she had stayed in Hyderabad training with her personal coach. Now, a move to the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy means changing cities. And she’s doing with a clear goal of next year’s Paris Olympics in mind, just like taking the protected ranking. (More on the injury and protection here)
How does this affect her game?
Having a mentor is different from that of a travelling coach, but it’s a crucial role in Sindhu’s career because of how her game is dictated by what she is told by the coach courtside. She is a versatile player, who can both attack and defend, and earn point by sheer physicality. But post injury, compromised movement and hesitancy meant she was caught somewhere between both offence and defence on court and opponents exploited that.
Ever since her split with Park Taesang earlier this year, there has been an erratic quality to her on-court tactics. She was briefly travelling with SAI Vidhi Choudhary before fixing on the former All England champion Hashim. There has been an upswing in fortunes for her since, but it’s still early to see how he is shaping her play. Now, with the injury setback now, it’ll be some time before we see her again. But even in her limited chances in the European swing, it was clear that Sindhu’s attacking game was being built on and it resulted in back-to-back semis and a return to the Top 10.
With Padukone as her mentor, and him declaring that he intends to sharpen her attacking style, there will likely be a cohesion to her on-court strategy which could prove to be pivotal. Padukone discussed this in the Indian Express article, saying “my first job was to make her understand what strategy and tactics to adopt while playing different opponents.” Once Sindhu can get her mental and tactical bearings right, her fitness and natural ability on court will automatically make her a force to reckon with.
Didn’t Saina move to Bengaluru in the past too?
Yes, Sindhu is not the first top badminton player to make the move to PPBA. Saina did it in 2014, in the lead up to Rio Olympics supposedly because it was believed that Gopichand was paying more attention to the younger Sindhu more than her. There was some controversy there later, when Gopichand was quoted as saying that he blamed Padukone for encouraging her to leave. The PPBA then released a statement saying that it was solely Saina’s decision to leave. Unfortunately, injury setbacks and a loss of form meant Saina never really hit her world No 1 attaining form again. So it’s hard to judge how much of a difference the move made back then.
( – Zenia D’cunha)
The Indian men’s football team has arrived in Bhubaneswar as they prepare to take on Qatar in their second FIFA World Cup Qualification match. Sunil Chhetri and his men will face the reigning AFC Asian Cup champions at the Kalinga Stadium in three days from now on Tuesday.
India come into the game on the high of earning a remarkable 1-0 win against Kuwait a couple of days ago, which was India’s first away win in a FIFA WC qualifier in 22 years. Qatar, on the other hand, handed Afghanistan an 8-1 drubbing on Thursday.
India last hosted Qatar in June 2021, and that ended in a 1-0 defeat as Rahul Bheke was sent off early in the game and Abdulaziz Hatem scored a first-half winner.
�� The Indian team has landed in Bhubaneswar. ������ pic.twitter.com/0RjAcEo7JM
– Odisha Sports (@sports_odisha) November 17, 2023
Two of India’s most successful badminton players have joined forces as Prakash Padukone has taken up the mentor role in PV Sindhu’s coaching set up. Early on Saturday morning, Sindhu posted on social media that she had been working with Padukone since August and “it’s been uphill ever since.”
Sindhu is currently recovering from a knee injury she suffered at the French Open last month and has applied for a protected ranking. Athletes can apply for a protected ranking in situations where they cannot compete for long periods: a minimum period of three months to a maximum of 12 or until such time as the player notifies BWF that the player wishes to enter a tournament again. That means Sindhu will be out of action until at least February 2024, unless she recovers sooner and feels she is ready to compete again. More on this here: Injured Sindhu gets protected ranking, could be out till next year
For those wondering and constantly asking me ��, the cat is finally out of the bag!!
Prakash sir is assuming the role of the mentor in my setup. I started training with him at the end of August, and it’s been uphill ever since. He’s more than a mentor; he’s my guide, my guru,… pic.twitter.com/KxYlo4dyBd
– Pvsindhu (@Pvsindhu1) November 18, 2023
The big one: Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden will be in action in the semifinal of ATP World Tour Finals. The duo will face Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos for a place in the final. By winning the quarterfinal tie, Bopanna, 43, became the oldest player to reach the semifinal of the World Tour Finals and will be eager keep the momentum going and make more history on Saturday.
Also, we’ll get you more updates from ICC Cricket World Cup, Indian football, badminton, hockey and more.
You can check all the details of Friday’s news events here. Here are the cliff notes:
Rohan Bopanna became the oldest player ever to reach the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals.
More details with regard to Arsene Wenger’s upcoming India trip.
An analysis of how India beat Kuwait in their FIFA men’s World Cup Qualifying match.
Mumbai City Des Buckingham bid goodbye to the club and joined English side Oxford United.
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