Some disappointing results

I’m finally down to writing my thoughts on my results at the Korea Open, Hong Kong Open and the World Championships.
Starting off with the Korea Open: I played Li Yu from China in the first round. I won 22-20,18-21,21-19. I didn’t feel I played too well in this match, but the conditions were very tough -- with a lot of wind in the hall and difficult lighting to get used to.
I played Dicky Palyama of Holland in the second round and I felt pretty good about this match, considering I’d beaten him a few weeks ago in Singapore. But this time I lost 21-16,14-21,18-21. I was okay in the first game but it started to go wrong right from the start of the second. Dicky was better prepared to play me this time and he anticipated a lot of my smashes. I should still have won, but with the new scoring system sometimes the game gets over before you realise what happened.
At Hong Kong, I played Yogendran Krishnan of Malaysia in the first round. I lost 21-14,17-21,14-21. Again, I started off well, but I wasn’t able to keep it up. Yogendran also had a good match, and he was pulling off pretty much any stroke he played.

Injury strikes
The World Championships returned to Spain this year after a gap of five years. It was held in Seville in 2001.
The team had had a camp of about two weeks in Hyderabad before leaving for Seville. Unfortunately, a few days before we were to leave, I hurt my right calf muscle. Doctors in Hyderabad told me there was no muscle tear but that it was a case of acute strain of the muscle.
As a result I wasn’t really able to do any training for about a week before my match. I took a lot of physiotherapy treatment in Hyderabad and on reaching Madrid. This didn’t have the desired effect though, and I wasn’t 100% while playing my first round against Liao Sheng Shiun of Chinese Taipei. I lost 21-19,16-21,14-21.
This was a strange match for me because I was unable to jump sideways comfortably so I was constantly using makeshift movements. It was no surprise then that I lost to a lower ranked player.
So my first World Championships didn’t turn out to be as great as I hoped but I’m remaining positive and am currently getting treatment for my calf in Bangalore. I’m not sure yet what tournament I will play next as it depends on how soon I can get back to 100% fitness.