Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy’s win at the Nationals hopes a new chapter

As the shuttlers, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy, found the opponent Satwik Sai Raj returning the bird into the net in the hysterical men’s doubles finals of the recently-concluded Nationals, the shuttlers’ success was emblazoned.

There was the wild euphorial celebration by the shuttlers; the moment when they realised the win, Attri ran out of the court to give high-five to the fellow junior doubles player, while Sumeeth ran to hug the partner. They made the opponents and the umpire wait for the mandatory handshake after the match.

And That's how we celebrate... @Senior National Badminton Championships 2017.
Crazy Match, Crazy Celebrations...@AtriManu pic.twitter.com/52D2F80kz3

— Buss Sumeeth reddy (@buss_reddy) 9 November 2017

The duo previously won the title twice together; first being in 2012 as the first championship as the pair. The world no. 33 pair has been under great pressure as they took the match after the opportunity of six match points.

“Everyone had started asking us when will you win,” said Sumeeth, “It’s good to ask that question but I think we are a bit slow. We have had some results in smaller tournaments but the pressure was building because we were not doing well in Superseries.”

In 13 of the 18 events, the pair didn’t even cross the first phase in this year and hadn’t got through a single round in the 11 superseries tournaments since the Rio Olympics. There are only two tournaments in their list who cleared the second round and the only title they won this year was the Lagos International Challenge in July.

“Manu is very talented. He has very sensitive mindset. If something is troubling him he cannot play. So he was trying to forget what has happened and move on but it took a lot of time,” said Sumeeth.

The pair took time to adjust to the new coaching system under the Malaysian coach, Tan Kim Her, who joined the Indian badminton in December 2015.

“With a new coach coming, we began working on our toss and lift game, which doesn’t come naturally to us,” said Attri, “So when we came to the Nationals, I had only one mindset that we will play our natural game. We play flat and fast and we had beaten top players by playing our game.”

“We needed one victory and now I am confident things will change.”