Badminton World Federation’s punishing schedule is taking toll on top players' fitness ahead of 2020 Tokyo Olympics

It was a horrifying sight for any badminton player, or diehard supporter of the sport. South Korea’s Son Wan Ho stretched forward on his toes to retrieve a net dribble from compatriot Lee Hyun Il during his men’s singles semi-final clash with the veteran southpaw in the 57th Korean National Badminton Championships last Saturday, and collapsed in a heap next to the net.

The 30-year-old former World No 1 stretched out his limbs on the court, racquet cast aside and both hands clutching his left leg, his face a rictus of pain. He continued to lie there until the courtside officials determined that he had been injured seriously enough to preclude the chances of his continued participation in the contest. Then he was stretchered off the court, to a hospital to determine the extent of the damage.

The medical bulletin later revealed that the current World No 6 had ruptured the Achilles tendon on his left ankle, and would require surgery to correct the damage. Son is expected to be out of the game for a minimum of 6-8 months, and there is now a distinct question over his participation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He had been in great form in the opening tournaments of the current season, defeating China’s Chen Long in straight games at 21-17, 21-19 in the final of the Malaysian Masters World Tour Super 500 Championships in mid-January.

With the Korean now rendered unfit to take part in the tournaments in the latter part of the year, that are deemed to be qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics, he may be deprived of the chance of either replicating, or going one beyond, his bronze medal-winning performance at the 2016 Rio Games.

Son’s unfortunate injury was almost identical to the one that China’s up-and-coming Gao Fangjie had suffered in tournament play earlier this year. The 20-year-old Gao also ruptured her left Achilles tendon, and was told by her surgeon that it would take up to a year before she could return to full fitness, in order to participate at the high level she is used to.

The dreadful injury had taken place when the Chinese player had recovered from the loss of the first game, to lead 8-6 in the second game of her Malaysia Masters clash against reigning world and Olympic champion, Carolina Marin of Spain; and had forced her departure from the court in a wheelchair in a flood of tears, with the sporting Spaniard lending a sympathetic helping hand.

Ironically, it was the 25-year-old Marin who was felled by injury in the final of the Indonesia Masters, barely a week later, when she held a commanding 9-3 lead against India’s Saina Nehwal. She attempted an airborne interception of the shuttle while moving to her right, landed awkwardly on her right knee, which appeared to buckle under her weight, and went down in pain, clutching the joint.

The gritty Spaniard tried to play on, and even won the next point with a storming finish of a weak return at the net, but in the subsequent, longer rally, she was unable to reach the shuttle placed near her forehand net corner, and had to bite the bullet. The injury was found to be a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, and required surgical reconstruction, similar to the operation that Saina herself had undergone after being injured at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Two other top women players suffered debilitating injuries during the Hong Kong Open in November last year – World No 1, Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and Chinese left-hander He Bingjiao, presently sitting on the seventh rung in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings.

Tai was forced to retire during her semi-final encounter, with injuries to her back and wrist that have, in retrospect, taken a long time to heal completely. She took a chance by playing in the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, and ended up having to swallow defeat at the hands of India’s PV Sindhu, against whom she had boasted an imposing 10-3 record until that point, with six consecutive victories in the course of the two preceding years.

The 24-year-old Taiwanese star’s performance continues to be adversely affected this year, with students of the game noticing that she is a little slower on her feet than at any time during the 120-odd weeks that she has spent at the pinnacle of the rankings. Even at the recent All England, where she had been a raging hot favourite to notch a hat-trick of titles, Tai ended up surrendering her crown by a 17-21, 17-21 scoreline to China’s Chen Yufei, whom she had never lost to in eleven earlier encounters.

The other injury victim in Hong Kong last November, He Bingjiao, landed awkwardly on her ankle, and could not continue her quarter-final match. She also had to leave the venue in a wheelchair, and took two months to recover from the sprain and return to the circuit.

Yet another victim of a knee injury was the talented World No 14, Ng Ka Long Angus, who has recently troubled the best in the world. He twisted his right knee while playing for Hong Kong against Taiwan in the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, and played no further part in the competition. The injury has also forced him to withdraw from the ongoing India Open and the forthcoming Malaysia Open.

“It is the cramped and crowded schedule of tournaments that is causing players to get injured, and to then be forced to continue playing even before they have recovered fully,” says Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, the 2017 world champion and former World No 1, who had to undergo ankle surgery last year, and was forced to stay off the circuit for several months. “It is the BWF that is totally to blame for this sorry state of affairs.”

Indeed, the world body that controls the sport is squarely to blame for trying to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. The BWF had issued a diktat last year that the top 15 ranked singles players (both men and women) and the top ten doubles pairs (in all three paired events) would be required to feature in at least 12 of the 15 designated top World Tour tournaments, or else, face a substantial fine.

“We get virtually no time to recover from our injuries, or prepare for the important events, because the calendar is so crowded,” says HS Prannoy, who suffered for several months last year from a wrongly treated corn in his foot, and has not played at anywhere near his best since contracting that injury. Prannoy was unbeaten in seven matches in the 2018 Premier Badminton League (PBL), but failed to reproduce that sterling performance during the 2019 PBL.

“This compulsion to play so many tournaments during a year that is the qualifying year for the next Olympics places too much pressure on the players. We have also been asked by our own association to play in the country’s Nationals, and players want to participate in the PBL, because that is a relatively relaxed tournament where the monetary rewards are decent.”

Unhappily, the BWF did not benefit from the experience of the 2018 season, and has once again produced a 2019 calendar that is jampacked with tournaments in different parts of the globe, and has also cracked the whip on top players to parade their talents in at least 80 percent of the competitions designated World Tour Super 500 and upwards. This could well induce below-par performances from a crippled bunch of players at the all-important Olympics Games in Tokyo next year.