Working with Tom John

AS some of you may know, I’ve hired a personal coach, Tom John, for six months leading up to the Olympics. I’ve been working with him for a little over two months now. The official list of qualifiers for the Olympics is out and I’m on it, so we’re training and looking to peak at the Olympics.

I’d been thinking about hiring a personal coach for a while now. I felt that since the World Championships last August, I hadn’t really continued on the same path and was beginning to stagnate. There were, of course, some things that were out of my control, like the injury to my foot, which started to get really bad around September/October last year. But I still felt like I needed to shake things up a bit and try something different. I had a couple of people in mind who I wanted to work with. Of course, ideally I would have either Prakash Padukone or Vimal Kumar travel with me, but since they have to take care of the academy, that wasn’t a possibility. I’d talked to Jim Laugesen, a former player from Denmark, about the possibility of training with him and he was quite keen on it. I’d also worked with Tom John over brief periods some years ago and I thought he could also help me. In the end, I went with Tom John because I needed to be based in India in this period leading up to the Olympics and he was better suited to Indian conditions, having been in India many times in the past.

We had a mixed sort of start as a team. I had an ordinary German and All England Open but was beginning to play better and better towards the end of my stay at the All England. As it turned out, I beat Shoji Sato of Japan in the first round in the Swiss Open. I did’nt start out very well and was down 14-19 in the first. I was able to really raise my level from then on and equalised at 19-19. He got a net cord at that stage and went up to 20-19 but I was feeling quite good having won a few points in a row and I went on to win the game at 22-20. I dropped the second game but recovered in time to take the third.

I felt good about my next round against Taufik as I’d beaten him the last time we played. But I got injured in the first game itself. It felt quite strange, I’d never been injured before and one moment I was playing and the next I felt and heard a loud snap in my left foot. I couldn’t put my foot down at all after that and had to concede. I had a strange plane ride back to Bangalore on a wheelchair, and crutches where there was no ramp for the wheelchair.

Since recovering from the injury, I’ve mostly been doing weight training for the upper body and a lot of cycling since I didn’t want to risk injuring the foot further. I’ve been amazed at how without running or playing Tom has managed to keep me fit through the last few weeks. I’ve just started to play again and I feel a bit stronger and fitter. It’ll take a couple more weeks before the physical work that I’ve done is translated to the court but when it does, I’ll be better than before.

So, as of now, the plan is to work more on physical conditioning for the next two weeks or so and then get on to more on court work. I’ll write another update in a few weeks’ time :)

-Anup

Anup Sridhar ranked career-high No. 24 in the World

According to the latest world rankings released by BWF yesterday, Anup Sridhar contiues to be the top Indian player at No. 24 (34342 points). Anup shot up 5 places from last week thanks to his performance at the Swiss Open. Prior to this Anup had reached No. 25 in November last year.

Click here to check the world rankings.

Anup Sridhar engages veteran badminton coach Tom John

Anup Sridhar, India's top badminton player, has recently signed on veteran badminton coach Tom John as his personal traveling coach. John comes with over two decades of coaching experience in the UK and on international badminton circuits ...

Click here for the official press release.

Wilson Swiss Open Super Series 2008

In the first round, Anup Sridhar, the lone Indian male in the main draw, beat World No. 17 Shoji Sato from Japan. Anup now leads the Head-to-head 3:2.

In the first game, Anup trailed 14-19 at one stage but came back strong to win five points in succession, when it mattered most, to level the game at 19-19. The momentum was clearly in Anup's favor at that point and he went on to wrap up the first game 22-20. In the second game, Shoji got the early momentum on his side, by winning the first five points, and used that to wrap up the game 13-21. In the decider, the tables turned and Anup got the early momentum. He used it to stay well ahead of Shoji throughout the game and eventually wrapped up the game and match 21-14.

In the second round, Anup Sridhar (29) played World No. 7 Taufik Hidayat. Twelve minutes into the first game, with the score reading 11-9 in Taufik's favor, Anup injured his foot and was forced to retire.

Anup’s next tournament is the India Open Grand Prix Gold at Hyderabad from 1-6th April.

Yonex All England Super Series 2008

Anup Sridhar, World No. 26 and the only Indian male in the main draw, played Dan Lin, the World No. 1 from China, in the first round of the Yonex All England Open Super Series 2008. Anup started off well winning the first game 21-16, but then Lin Dan came back strong to take the next two games 21-8 21-11.

Anup feels he is getting closer and is optimistic of beating Dan Lin soon. Anup has good reason to feel that way as he was the only player, other than Jin Chen who beat Dan Lin in the finals, to take a game off Dan Lin.

Anup's next tournament is the Wilson Swiss Open Super Series 2008, which begins tomorrow. Anup is again the only Indian male in the main draw and plays World No. 17 Shoji Sato from Japan in the first round.

Yonex German Open 2008

Anup Sridhar, seeded No. 9, faced 2004 Athens Olympic Games Silver medalist, Korean Seung Mo Shon, in the first round of the German Open.

Anup, who just a few days earlier had captained India to a fifth place finish in the Thomas Cup Asia round in Vietnam, lost to Seung, who was part of the Korean team that finished second in the same tournament. Seung eventually went on to reach the semi-finals.

Anup's next tournament is the Yonex All England Super Series 2008 which begins from today. He is the only Indian male in the main draw and plays World No. 1, Lin Dan, in the first round tomorrow. The two have met twice before – 2007 German Open and 2007 World Championships – with Lin Dan winning both.

‘Tricky start for holder Lin Dan at All England champs’ - Reuters

2008 Thomas & Uber Cup Asian Qualifying Rounds

Anup Sridhar led the Indian men’s team – which consisted of Arvind Bhat, Chetan Anand, Akshay Dewalkar, V. Diju, P. Kashyap, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas and J.B.S. Vidyasagar – to a fifth place finish at the Thomas Cup Asian qualifying round held at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from 19^th – 24^th Feb.

Being the top ranked Indian player, Anup consistently played against higher ranked opponents. His big win came in the last tie against Hong Kong where he beat World No. 19 Yan Kit Chan.

A summary of his matches:

League match against Pakistan:
Anup Sridhar (27) beat Wajid Ali (167) in straight sets – 21-16 21-15 – wrapping up the match in 30 min. Head-2-Head Anup leads 2:0.

League match against Japan:
Anup Sridhar (27) lost to Shoji Sato (17) – 17-21 15-21 in 35 minutes. Head-2-Head Anup and Shoji are tied at 2:2.

Quarterfinal match against Malaysia:
Anup Sridhar (27) lost to Chong Wei Lee (2) – 15-21 14-21 in 28 minutes. Head-2-Head Chong leads 2:0.

5^th – 8^th place match against Singapore:
Anup Sridhar (27) lost to Yen Hui Kendrick Lee (20) – 16-21 14-21 in 24 minutes. Head-2-Head Yen leads 2:0.

5^th – 8^th place match against Hong Kong:
Anup Sridhar (27) beat Yan Kit Chan (19) – 21-16 21-17 in 26 minutes. Head-2-Head Anup leads 1:0.

Anup’s next tournament is the Yonex German Open at Rhein-Ruhr Halle/ Mulheim, Germany from 26^th February – 2^nd March. Anup reached the semi-finals last year and is currently seeded No. 9.

2008 Senior National Badminton Championships - Goa from 19-27January

Anup Sridhar came into the tournament immediately after playing the Proton Malaysia Open Super Series 2008 where he reached the pre-quarter finals, losing to Hyun Ii Lee who was the eventual runner-up.

Anup had little time to shed off the travel fatigue and jet lag in pursuit of the title of National Champion (which has little significance beyond the title). Anup was the top seeded player in the tournament as he was the No. 1 ranked player in India.

The tournament started with the Team event, where Anup lead the Petroleum Sports Control Board to the title. In Men’s singles that followed, Anup’s run ended at the semi-finals where he was edged out by Chetan Anand, who was the defending National Champion, in a tight three-set match.

Anup’s next tournament is the Thomas Cup in Vietnam from 19-24 February where he is the captain of the Indian Men’s team.

Wrap of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 ...

2007 was an eventful and successful year for Anup Sridhar as he ended the year as the top Indian badminton player with a career-high world ranking of 25.

Having reached the semifinals at the German Open and the Asian Continental Championships and the quarterfinals at the Thailand Open and, most importantly, at the 2007 World Championships, the next year holds much promise for this budding shuttler. Anup has displayed, on more than one occasion, that he can take on and beat the best in the world. His most famous win was the one over Taufik Hidayat – former world no. 1, gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2005 World Champion – at the World Championships in what was one of the longest matches of the tournament. Anup's performance at the World Championships was rated among the top-10 Indian sporting performances of 2007.

Anup started 2008 with a bang by winning the prestigious Pramod Mahajan All-India ranking tournament in New Delhi. He followed that up by reaching the pre-quarterfinals, one round better than last year, of the Proton Malaysia Super Series where he lost to Hyun Il Lee, the eventual runner-up.

Anup is an employee of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and is currently sponsored by Yonex and SLK Software.

The next few months are crucial for Anup as he aims to confirm his place at the Beijing Olympics. Possessing the incredible ability to raise his game when it really matters, we strongly believe that Anup has the potential to be amongst the best in the world and that he is a strong medal contender at Beijing this year.

Go Anup Go!