Published By: Ritayan Basu
Last Updated: December 18, 2023, 10:35 IST
Indian badminton Sathish Kumar Karunakaran (X/BAI)
Satish Kumar Karunakaran defeated Ayush Shetty 21-18, 19-21, 21-14 to win his maiden BWF Super 100 title at Odisha Masters.
Before discovering his ardour for badminton, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran beloved his time within the pool, pursuing swimming as a child.
It was solely after he turned 11 that he fell in love with badminton after watching his cousin Arun Kumar play the game. Slowly it grew into a ardour and inside three years, he was pursuing it significantly.
One man liable for recognising his expertise and sharpening his expertise is his coach Ajit Wijetilekk and Sathish acknowledged his lengthy-time affiliation with him after claiming his maiden BWF Super 100 title at Odisha Masters on Sunday.
“I was a swimmer and I really enjoyed it and was doing well till the age of 11. My cousin is a badminton player and I used to watch him play and I started to like it and so I shifted to badminton,” Sathish informed PTI from Cuttack.
“By 14, I had started to play badminton professionally. I started my training under Venkatesh sir in Coimbatore, then I went to Malaysia briefly and now I am training with Ajit sir.
“Last three years I have shifted to Bangalore. Ajit sir was in Coimbatore. Once he shifted to Bangalore and so I also moved along with him and have been training at Ajit Wijetilekk School of Badminton in Bangalore.”
“I felt very comfortable training with him. They have a very good team. I have been training under him for close to 10 years,” mentioned Sathish, who is now pursuing his MBA.
Now that he has claimed his first BWF title, Sathish, at present ranked 61, is eager to climb up the rating ladder and has set an bold goal of reaching the highest 20 by the top of 2024.
“I had this target of hitting the top 50 by the end of this year, and I am happy I could do it. I am aiming for the top 10 but the top 20 is a compulsory target, I have to achieve it by next year,” he mentioned.
Odisha Masters was his eleventh straight event with no break and although he was pleased to win the title, issues seemed just a little bleak after he had a foul fall throughout the second-spherical match at Syed Modi International in Lucknow.
“I was well prepared for the last three tournaments as it was happening in India, I wanted to win at least a title. I was playing well in Syed Modi International as well but I fell during a match and had swelling in my fingers, so I was not able to hold the racquet.
“At Guwahati, I was not well so I couldn’t do much. I was not up to the mark, there was pain and I was not confident. I took an X-ray and then I did rehab and I felt better in this event, but I was tense today as it was my first super 100 final and I was not at my best.”
Born in Chennai, the 22-yr-previous Sathish had began doing properly within the junior circuit, successful a bronze medal at the Junior Korea Open and the Junior nationwide championships in 2019 in Bangalore. He was additionally a part of the Indian workforce within the 2019 World Junior Championships and Asian Championships.
However, COVID-19 introduced the world to a standstill and with it, his development to the senior circuit bought delayed.
“I didn’t stop training. My coach knows how to go about it. He was staying with me and we used to train inside. I didn’t miss much in COVID. But it is just that I started late participating in the senior tournaments. So, I started playing in the senior circuit in 2021.”
Sathish went on to end runner-up in Ukraine International and Hungarian International in his first season in seniors, earlier than claiming males’s titles at 2023 Cameroon International, the place he additionally completed runner-up in combined doubles with Aadya Variyath.
This season, Sathish gained males’s singles titles at two India International Challenge in Bengaluru and Chhattisgarh and had a runner-up end at Maldives International, the place he gained the combined doubles crown with Aadya. Sathish and Aadya additionally gained the 2023 Malaysia International.
“I am confident of my game. I just have to keep sticking to my routine and hopefully I will do well,” he signed off.
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – PTI)
