Kashyap goes where no Indian has gone before

You cannot get better evidence of a positive guru-shishya relationship than the one the world saw immediately after Parupalli Kashyap won his pre-quarter final match against Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne at the London Olympics. Kashyap walked to coach Pullela Gopichand and hugged him for a good five seconds. Neither spoke a word nor smiled. It was an emotional moment during which Kashyap must have thanked Gopi a million times. Thanked him not only for coaching him but for those three words Gopi uttered during the third game. Kashyap had won the first game decisively 21-14 but lost the second at 15-21. The third game began with Kashyap and Niluka, very pumped-up, fighting hard for each point. When Niluka celebrated the fourth point to go up 4-3 to earn a mild reprimand from the umpire, Gopi gesticulated with his hands, a sign that Kashyap should slow down the game and said “Relax, calm down’’. [caption id=“attachment_400825” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The advantage for Kashyap is that he has everything to gain and nothing to lose from now on. AP[/caption] That was the turning point in the match. Kashyap prolonged the rallies and waited for Karunaratne to make mistakes. The tactic worked as the world number 48 who till then, was in a hurry to finish the match was committing unforced errors, especially at the net. Kashyap, ranked 21 in the world, came into the match, clearly the favorite, though Niluka, who had bearded the world number 8 Kenichi Tago of Japan in his group could not be underestimated. Kashyap relied on his armoury of cross-court smashes and net play to push Niluka on the backfoot for most of the first game. Niluka turned the tables in the second game, where Kashyap seemed to have gone into a defensive frame of mind. And in the third game, by prolonging the volleys with the shuttle that travels a bit slower through the air in London, Kashyap managed to frustrate Niluka. Kashyap has now reached where no Indian men singles player has reached before. Not even his Gopi bhaiya. He will meet the winner of the match between world number 6 Indonesian Simon Santoso and world number 2 Malaysian Lee Chong Wei. Kashyap lost to Santoso in the semi final of the Indonesian Open in June but if the rival is Chong Wei, Kashyap will have some hope. Chong Wei has just returned from injury and Lang Ville of Finland stretched him to three games in the group stage. The advantage for Kashyap is that he has everything to gain and nothing to lose from now on. Besides his rival’s match videos, he will do well to watch his own match at the Indonesia Open in June this year, when he got the better of world number 3 from China, Chen Long to reach the quarters. And tell himself August can be as good as June. P.S. I suspect Niluka knew Hindi. For everytime the Indian supporters would shout “Jeetege bhai jeetega, India jeetega’’, the Sri Lankan would retaliate by scoring a point. I would suggest the crowd checks out if either Chong Wei or Santoso know Hindi.